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1831 AND 1832. 



ID'S ^mCDEtiiS S» mW^sf 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, METAPHYSICS AND POLITICAL LAW, 
WILLIAM AND. MARY COLLEGE. 






-\ RICHMOND: 

Printed by T. W. White, opposite the Bell Tavern, 

1832. 



H * -^^^ 



ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 



1. — Debate in the Virginia Legislature of 1 S3 1-3-2, on the ^ibolition of Slavery. Rich- 
mond. 

of ^ippomatiox to the People of Virginia on the subject of the Abolition of Sla- 
fcluaond. 




bking to the texture of the population of our country, 
nothing so well calculated to arrest the attention of the 
r, as the existence of Negro Slavery throughout a large 
portion of tiie confederac}'. A race of people difl'ering from us in 
colour and in habits, and vastly inferior in the scale of civilization, 
have been increasing and spreading, " growing with our growth 
and strengtliening with our strength,^ until they have become in- 
tertwined and intertwisted with every fibre of society. Go through 
our Southern country, and ever}" where you see the negro slave 
by the side of the w hite man ; you find liim alike in the mansion of 
the rich, the cabin of the poor, the «orksiiop of the mechanic, and 
the field of the planter. Upon the contemplation of a population 
framed like this, a curious and interesting question readily sug- 
gests itself to the inquiring mind: — Can these two distinct races of 
people now living together as master and servant, be ever separa- 
ted ? Can the black be sent back to his African home, or will the 
day ever arrive when he can be liberated from his thraldom, and 
mount upwards in the scale of civilization and rights, to an equality 
with the whiter This is a question of truly momentous charac- 
ter; it involves the whole frame work of society, contemplates a 
separation of its elements, or a radical change in their relation, 
and requires for its adequate investigation the most complete and 
profound knowledge of the nature and sources of national wealth 
and political aggrandizement — an acquaintance with the elastic and 
powerful spring of population and the causes which invigorate or 
paralsze its energies, together with a clear perception of the vary- 
ing rights of man amid all the changing circumstances by which 
he may be surrounded, and a profound knowledge of all the princi- 
ples, passions and susceptibilities which make up the moral nature 
of our species ; and according as they are acted upon by adventi- 
tious circumstances, alter our condition, and produce all that won- 
derful variety of character which so strongljiliarks and characteri- 
^es the human family. VV^ell then does it behoove even the wisest 
man to approach this august subject with the utmost circum- 
tion and diffidence; its wanton agitation even is pregnant with 
hief; but rash and hast}' action threatens, in our opinion, the 
le Southern country with irremediable ruin. Tlie evil of yester- 
day^s growth, may be extirpated to-dnij, and the vigour of society 
may heal the wound; but that which is the growth of oges, may 
require ages to remove. The Parliiiment of Great Britain, with 
all its philanthropic zeal, guided by the wisdom and eloquence of 
such statesmen as Chatham, Fox, l^urke, Pitt, Canning and 
Brougliam, has never yet seriously agitated this question, in regard 
to the West India possessions. Revolutionary France, actuated by 
2 




the most intemperate and phrenetic zeal for liberty and equality, 
attempted to legislate the free people of colour in the ib>land of St. 
Domingo into all the rights and privileges of the whites ; and biit^.. 
a season afterwards, convinced of her madness, she ^tt^nllSid to ' 
retrace her steps, but it was too late; the deed had been done^ the ' 
bloodiest and most shocking insurrection ever recorded in 'thi6*an- 
nals of history, had broken onl, and the whole Island was involved 
in frightful carnage and anarchy, and France in the end, has been 
stript "of the briglitest jewel in her crown," — the fairest and most y 
valuable of all her colonial possessions. Since the revolution,^ 
France, Spain and Portugal, large owners of colonial possessions, 
have not only not abolished'^lavery in their colonies, but have not: 
even abolislied the slave trade in practice. 

In our Southern slave-holding country, the question of emanci- 
pation has never been seriously discussed in any of our legislatures, 
until the whole subject, under the most exciting circumstances, was, 
during the last winter, brought up for discussion in the Virginia 
Legislature, and plans of partial or total abolition were earnestly 
pressed upon the attention of that body. V It is well known, that 
during the last summer, in the county of Sou^thanjpton in Virginia, 
a {qsn slaves, led on by Nat Turner, rose iiTthe night, and murder- 
ed in the most inliuman and shocking manner, between sixt}' and 
seventy of the unsuspecting whites of that county. The news, of 
course, was rapidly dilTused, and with it consternation and dismay 
were spread throughout the State, destroying for a time all feeling 
of security and confidence; and even when subsequent develope- 
ment had proved, that the conspiracy had been originated by a fa- 
natical negro preacher, (whose confessions prove beyond a doubt 
mental aberration,) and that this conspiracy embraced but few 
slaves, all of whom had paid the penalty of their crimes, still the 
excitement remained, still the repose of the Commonwealth was 
disturbed, — for the ghastly horrors of the Southampton tragedy 
could not immediately be banished from the mind — and Rumour, 
too, with her thousand tongues, was busily engaged in spreading 
tales of disafiection, plots, insurrections, and even massacres, which 
frightened the timid and harassed and mortified the whole of the 
slave-holding populaj^nn. During this period of excitement, when 
reason was almost banished from the mind, and the imagination 
was syiTered to conjure up the most appalling phantoms, and pic- 
ture to itself a crisis in the vista of futurity, when the overwhelming 
numbers of the blacks would rise superior to all restraint, and involve 
the fairest portion of our land in universal ruin and desolation, itve 
are not to wonder, that even in the lower part of Virginia, many- 
should have seriously inquired, if this,, supposed monstrous evil 
could not be removed from our bosom. Some looked to the re- 
moval of the free people of colour by the eflbrts of the Coloniza- 
tion Society, as an antidote to all our ills. Some were disposed 
to strike at the root of the evil — to call on the General Government 
for aid, and by the labors of Hercules, to extirpate the curse of 



' 7 

slavery from tlie land. Others again, who could not hear that 
Virginia should stand towards the General Government (whose un- 
constitntion;d action she had ever been foremost to resist.) in the 
altitude of a suppliant, looked forward to the legislative action of 
tlie State as capable of acliieving the desired result. In this state 
of excitement and unallajed apprehension, the. Legislature met, 
and plans for abolition were proposed and earnestly advocated in 
debate. 

Upon the impropriety of this debate, we beg leave to make a 
few observations. Any scheme of abolition proposed so soon after 
tlie Southampton tragedy, would necessarily appear to be the re- 
sult of that most inhuman massacre. Suppose tiie negroes, then, 
to be really anxious for their emancipation, no matter on what 
terms, would not tiie extraordinary effect produced on the legisla- 
ture by the Southampton insurrection, in all probability, iiave a 
tendency to excite another ? And we must recollect, from the nature 
of things, no plan of abolition could act suddenly on the whole 
mass of slave population in the State. JNIr. Randolph's was not 
even to commence its operation till 1840. Waiting then, one year 
or more, until the excitement could be allayed and the empire of 
reason could once more have been established, would surelj' have 
been productive of no injurious consequences; and, in the mean 
time, a Legislature could have been selected which would much 
better have represented the views and wishes of their constituents 
on this vital question. Virginia could have ascertainefl the senti- 
ments and wishes of other slave-holding States, whose concurrence, 
if not absolutely necessary, might be highly desirable, and should 
have been sought after and attended to, at least as a matter of State 
courtesy. Added to this, the texture of the Legislature was not of 
that character calculated to ensure the confidence of the people in 
a movement of this kind. If ever there was a question debated 
in a deliberative bod}', which called for the most exalted talent, the 
longest and most tried experience, the utmost circufflspection and 
caution, a complete exemption from prejudice and undue excite- 
ment where both are apt to prevail, an ardent and patriotic desire 
to advance the vital interests of the State, uncombined with 
mere desire for vain and ostentatious display, and wiih no view to 
party or geographical divisions, that question was the question of 
the abolition oi' slavery in the Virginia Legislature. "Grave and 
reverend seniors," "the very fathers of the Republic," were indeed 
required for the settlement of a question of such magnitude. It ap- 
pears, however, that the Legislature was composed of an unusual 
number of young and inexperienced members, elected in the month 
of April previous to the Southampton massa'cre, and at a time of pro- 
found tranquillity and repose, when of course the people were not 
disposed to call from their retirement their most distinguished and 
experienced citizens. 

We are very ready to admit, that in point of ability and elo- 
' quence, the debate transcended our expectations. One of the lead- ' 

K 



ing political papers in the State remarked — " We have never heard 
an\' debate so eloquent, so sustained, and in vviiich so great a num- 
ber of speakers had appeared, and commanded the attention of so 
numerous and intelligent an audience/' ..... "Day alter day, 
multitudes throng to the capital, and have been compensated by 
eloquence which would have illustrated Rome or Alliens." But 
however fine might liave been the rhetorical display, however 
ably some isolated points might have been discussed, still we af- 
firm, with confidence, that no enlarged, wise, and practical plan of 
operations, was proposed by the abolitionists. We will go farther, 
and assert thattlieir arguments, in most cases, were of a wild and 
intemperate character, based upon false principles and assumptions 
of the most vicious and alarming kind; subversive of the rights of 
property and the order and tranquillity' of society; and portending 
to the whole slave-holding country — if tlie3' ever shall be followed 
out in practice — the most inevitable and ruinous consequences. Far 
be it, however, from us, to accuse the abolitionists in the Virginia 
Legislature, of any settled malevolent design to overturn or con- 
vulse the fabric of society. We have no doubt that they were act- 
ing conscientiously' for the best ; but it often happens that frail 
imperfect man, in the too ardent and confident pursuit of imagi- 
nary good, runs upon his utter destruction. 

We have not formed our opinion lightly upon this subject; we 
have given to the vital question of abolition the most mature and 
intense consideration which we are capable of bestowing, and we 
have come to the conclusion — ^a conclusion which seems to be sus- 
tained by facts and reasoning as irresistible as the demonstration 
of the mathematician — that every plan of emancipation and de- 
portation which we can possibly conceive, is totally impracticable. 
We shall endeavor to prove, that the attempt to execute these plans 
can only have a tendency to increase all the evils of which we com- 
plain, as resulting from slavery.- If this be true, then the great 
question of abolition will necessarily be reduced to the question of 
emancipation, with a permission to remain, which we think can easily 
be shown to be utterly subversive of the interests, security, and hap- 
piness, of both the blacks and whites, and consequently hostile to 
every principle of expediency, morality', and religion. We have 
heretofore doubted the propriety even of too frequently agitating, 
especially in a public manner, the question of abolition, in con- 
sequence of the injurious eflects which might be produced on the 
slave population. But the Virginia Legislature, in its zeal for 
discussion, boldly set aside all prudential considerations of this 
kind, and openly and publicly debated the subject before the world. 
The seal has now been broken, the example has been set from a 
high quarter ; we shall therefore, waive all considerations of a pru- 
dential character which have heretofore restrained us, and boldly 
grapple with the abolitionists on this great question. We fear not 
the result, so far as truth, justice, and expediency alone are con- 
cerned. But we must be permitted to say, that we do most deeply 

/ 



9 

dread the eflects of misguided philanthropy, an i the marked, and 
we had like to have said, imperlincnt iiistrusion in tliis matter, of 
those who liuve no interest at stnke, aiid wlio have not that inti- 
mate and minute knowledge of the whole subject so absolutely ne- 
cessary to wise action. 

Without further preliminary, then, we shall advance to the dis- 
cussion of the question of abolition; noticing not only the plans 
proposed in the Virginia Legislature, but some others likewise. 
And, as the subject of slavery has been considered in every point 
of view, and pronounced, in the abstract at least, as entirely con- 
trary to the law of nature, we propose taking in the first place, 
a hasty view of the origin of slavery, and point out the influence 
which it has exerted on the progress of civilization, and to this pur- 
pose it will be necessary to look back to other ages — cast a glance 
at nations differing from us in civilization and manners, and see 
whetlier it is possible to mount to the source of slavery. 

I. Origin of Slavery and its Effects on the Progress of Civilization. 

Upon an examination of the nature of man, we find him to be al- 
most entirely the creature of circumstances — his habits and senti- 
ments are in a great measure the growth of adventitious causes — 
hence the endless variety and condition of our species. We are almost 
ever disposed, however, to identify the course of nature, with the 
progress of events in our own narrow contracted sphere; we look 
upon any deviation from the constant round in which we have been 
spinning out the thread of our existence, as a departure from na- 
ture's great system ; and from a known principle of our nature, 
our first impulse is to condemn. It is thus that the man born and 
nurtured in the lap of freedom, looks upon slavery as unnatural 
and horrible; and if he be not iisstructed upon the subject, is sure 
to thiidv that so unnatural a condition could never exist but in few 
countries or ages — in violation of every law of justice and human- 
ity ; and he is almost disposed to implore the divine wrath, to 
shower down the consuming fire of Heaven on the Sodoms and 
Gomorrhas of the world, where this unjust practice prevails. 

But, when he examines into the past condition of mankind, he 
stands amazed at the fact which history developes to his view. — 
"Almost every page of ancient history," says Wallace, in his Dis- 
sertation on the Numbers of Mankind, "demonstrates the great 
multitude of slaves; which gives occasion to a melancholy reflec- 
tion, that the world when best peopled, was^not a world of free- 
men, but of slaves:"* "And in every age and country, until times 
comparatively recent," says Hallam, "personal servitude appears 
to have been the lot of a large, perhaps the greater portion of 
mankind. "f 

Slavery was established and sanctioned by Divine Authority, 
among even the elect of Heaven — the favoured children of Israel. 

* P. 93. Edinburg Edition, t Middle Ages, vol, 1, p. 120, Philadelphia Edition. 



10 

Abraham, the founder of this interesting: nation, and the chosen 
servant of the Lord, was the owner ofhunclreds of slaves — that mag- 
nificent shrine, the Temple of Solomon, was reared by the hnnds of 
slaves. Eiivpt's venerable and enduring- piles were reared by simi- 
lar hands. Slavery existed in Assyria and Babylon. The ten tribes 
of Israel were carried off in bondage to the former by Shalmane- 
zar, and the two tribes of Jiidah were subsequently carried in tri- 
umph by Nebuchadnezzar to beautify and adorn tlie latter. An- 
cient Phoenicia and Carthage had slaves — the Greeks and Trojans 
at the siege of Troy, had slaves — Athens, and Sparta, and Thebes, 
indeed the whole Grecian and Romnn worlds, had more slaves than 
freemen. And in those ages which succeeded the extinction of the 
Roman Empire in the West, ^'Servi or slaves," says Dr. Robert- 
son, "seem to have been the most nuinerous class."* Even in 
this day of civilization, and the regeneration of governments, sla- 
very is far from being confined to our hemisphere alone. The 
Serf and Labour rents prevalent throughout the whole of Eastern 
Europe and a portion of Western Asia ; and the Ryot rents through- 
out the extensive and over populated countries of the East, and 
over the dominions of the Porte in Europe, Asia and Africa, but 
loo conclusively mark the existence of slaver}' over these bound- 
less regions. And when we turn to the vast continent of Africa, 
we find slavery in all its most horrid forms, existing throughout its 
\vhole extent — the slaves being at least three titnes more numerous 
than the freemen ; so that, looking to the whole world, we may even 
now with confidence assert, that slaves, or those whose condition is 
infinitely worse, form by far the largest portion of the human 
race ! 

Well then, may we here pause, and inquire a moment — for it is 
surely worthy of inquiry — how has slavery arisen and thus spread 
over our globe.'' We sliall not pretend to enumerate accurately, 
and in detail, all the causes which have led to slavery; but we be- 
lieve the principal nra.y be summed up under the following heads : 
1st, Laws of War — 2nd, State of Property and Feebleness of Go- 
vernment — 3rd,. Bargain and Sale — and 4th, Crime. 

1st. Laws of War. — There is no circumstance which more ho- 
norably and creditably characterizes modern warfare than the hu- 
manity with which it is waged, and the mildness with which captives 
are treated. Civilized nations, with but f^w exceptions, now act 
in complete conformity with the wise rule laid down by Grotius, 
" That in war we have a right only to the use of those means 
which have a conneation morally necessary with the end in view." 
Consequently, we have no just right, where this rule is adhered to 
by our adversary, to enslave or put to death enemies non comba- 
tant, who may be in our possession — for this in modern times, among 
civilized nations, is not morally necessary to the attainment of the 
end in view. On the contrary, if such a practice were commenced 

*See Robertson's Works, vol. 3, p. 186. 



11 

now, it would only increase the calamities of the belligerents, by 
converting their wars into wars of exierminntion, or rapine, and 
plnnder — terminated generally with infinitely less adviMUage, and 
more difficulty to each of the parties. But humane and advanta- 
geous as this miligalfd practice appears, we are not to suppose it 
universal, or that it has obtained in all ages. On the contrary, it 
is the growth of modern civilization, and has been confined in a 
great measure to civilized Europe and its colonies. 

Writers on the progress of sociel}^, designate three stages in 
which man has been found to exist. First, the hunting or fishing 
state — second, the pastoral — third, agricultural. Man in the hunt- 
ing state, has ever been found to wage war in the most cruel and 
implacable manner — extermination being the object of the bellige- 
rent tribes. Never has there been a finer field presented to the 
philosopher, for a complete investigation of the character of any 
portion of our species, than the whole American hemisphere pre- 
sented for the complete investigation of the character of savages 
in the hunting and fishing state. 

Doctor Robertson has given us a most appalling description of 
the cruelties with which savage warfare was waged throughout the 
wiiole continent of America and the barbarous 4nanner in which 
prisoners were every where put to death. He justly observes that 
" the bare description is enough to chill the heart with horror, 
wherever men have been accustomed, by milder institutions, to re- 
spect their species, and to melt into tenderness at the sight of hu- 
man snfierings. The prisoners are tied naked to a stake, but so 
as to be at liberty to move round it. All who are present, men, 
women and children, rush upon them like furies. Ev^ery species 
of torture is applied that the rancour of revenge can invent ; some 
burn their limbs with red hot iron, some mangle their bodies with 
knives, others tear their flesh from their bones, pluck out their nails 
by the roots, and rend and twist their sinews. Nothing sets bounds 
to their rage but the dread of abridging the duration of their 
vengeance by hastening the death of the sufierers ; and such is 
their cruel ingenuity in tormenting, that by avoiding industriously 
to hurt anj' vital part, they often prolong the scene of anguish for 
several days."* Let us i)ow inquire into the cause of such barba- 
rous practices, and we shall find that they must be imputed princi- 
pally to the passion of revenge. In the language of the same 
eloquent writer whom we have just quoted; "in small communities 
every man is touched with the injury or afiVont ofiered to the body 
of which he is a member, as if it were a personal attack on his 
own honor and safety. War, which between extensive kingdoms 
is carried on with little animosity, is prosecuted by small tribes 
with all the rancour of a private quarrel. When polished nations 
have obtained the glory of victory, or have acquired an addition 
of territory, they may terminate a war with honor. But savages 

•• *See Robertson's America, Philad. Eil. vol. 1, p. 197. 



]3 

are not saiisfiefl, until they extirpate tlie community wliicli is the 
objfct of (heir hatred. They fight not to conquer, but (h'Stroy.'' 
" Tlie desire of vengeance is llie first and ahnost the only principle, 
which a savage instils into tlie minds of his children. The desire 
of vengeance which takes possession of the hearts of savages, re- 
sembles the instinctive rage of an animal, rather than the passion 
of a man."* Unfortunately too, interest conspires witli the desire 
of revenge, to render savage w;irfare horrible. 'J'tie \v;ints of the 
savage, it is true, are few and simple ; but limited as they are, ac- 

( fording lo their mode of life it is extremely ditiicnli to supply them. 
Hunting and fishing aflord at best a very precarious subsistence. 
Throughout the extensive regions of America, population was 
found to be most sparsely scattered, but thin as it was, it was most 
wreichedly and scantily SMp[)lied with provisions. Under these 
circumstances, prisoners of war could not be kept, for the feeding 
of tliem would be sure to produce a famine. t They would not be 
sent back to theirr tribe, for that would strengthen the enemy. 
Tiiey conid not even make slaves of them, for their labour would 
have been worthless. Death then was unfortunately the piini>h- 
ment, which was prompted both by interest and revenge. ) Ant! 
accordingly, throughout the whole coniiucut of America,"^e find 
with but one or two exceptions, that this was iTie dreadful fate wliicli 
awaited the prisoners of all classes, men women and children. In 
fact, this has been the practice of war, wherever man was found 
in the first stages of society — living on the precarious subsistence 
ofthechace. The savages of the Islands of Andaman, in the East, 
supposed by many to be lowest in the scale of civilization, of Van 
Diemen's land, of New Holland, and of the Islands of the South 
PacificJ are all alike, — they all agree in the practice of extermi- 
nating enemies by the most perfidious and cruel conduct; and, 
throughout many extensive regions, the horrid practice of feasting 
on the murderecl prisoner prevails.-^ 

What is there, let us ask, which is calculated to arrest this hor- 
rid practice, and to comnmnicate an impulse towards civilization ? 
Strange as it may sound in modern ears, it is the institution of 
property and the existence of slavery. Judging from the univer- 

*3cc Robertson's America, vol. 1, pp. 192, 193. 

•|- "If a few Spaniards .settled in any district, such a small addition of supernumerary 
moullis soon exhausted iheii- scanty stores and brought on famnie." — Doctor Robertson, 
Vttge 182. 

+ Capt. Cook, in his third voyage, says of the natives in the neighborhood of Q-ueen 
Charlotte's Sound, "If I had follo\\ed the advice of all our pretended friends, I might 
have extirpated the whole race, for the people of each hamlet or villai^e, by turns applied 
lo me to destroy the other.". . ."It appears to me that the IS'ew Zealanders must live in 
perpetual ap[)rehensions of being destroyed by each other." 

§ Among the Iroquois, says Dr. Robertson, the phrase by which they express their 
resolution of making war against an enemy, is, "let us go and eat that nation." If they 
solicit the aid of a neighboring tribe, lliey invite it lo eat broth made of the flesh of then- 
enemies. Among the Abnakis, according to the "Lcltres Edif. el Curieuse," the 
chief, after dividing his warriors into parties, says lo each, lo you is given such a ham- 
let to cat, to you such a village, &c. Capt. Cook, in his third voyage, says of the N. 
Zealanders, " perhaps the desire of making a good meal (on prisoners) is no small in- 
ducement" (to go lo war). 



13 

sality of the fact, we may assert that domestic slavery seems to be 
tfie only mentis of fixing the wanderer to the soil, moderating his 
savage temppr, mititrating the horrors of war, and aholishilig tlie 
prat-lice of murdering tlie captives. In the pure hunting state, 
man h;is little idea of property, "nd coni-equenlly there is little 

room for distinction, except what arises from personal qtialities 

People in this state, retain tliercft)re a high sense of equality and 
independence. It is a singular fact, that the two extremes of so- 
ciety are most favorable to liberty and equality — the most sa- 
vage and the most refined and enlightened — the4ormer in conse- 
qnencc of tlie absence of the institution of property— and the latter 
from the diffusion of knowledge and the consequent capability of 
self government. The former is characterized b}' a wild, licentious 
independence, totally subversive of all order and tranquillity, and 
the latter by a well ordered, well established liberty, which while 
it leaves tr) each the enjoympnt of the fruits of his industry, secures 
him ajjainsi the lawless violence and rapine of his neighbors. 
Throughout the whole American continent, this equality and 
savage independence seem to have prevailed, except in the compa- 
ratively great kingdoms of Mexico and Peru, where the right to 
property was established. 

So soon as private right to property is established, slavery 
commences, and with tlie institution of slavery the cruelties of war 
begin to diminish. The chief finds it to his interest to make slaves 
of his captives, rather than put them to death. This system com- 
mences with the shepherd state, and is consummated in the agri- 
cultural ; slavery therefore seems to be the chief means of mitiga- 
ting the horrors of war. Accordingly, wherever among barbarous 
nations tiiey have so far advanced in civilization as to understand 
the use which may be made of captives, by converting them into 
slaves, there the cruelties of war are found to be lessened. > 

Throughout the whole continent of Africa, in consequence of 
the universal prevalence of slavery, war is not conducted with the 
same barbarous ferocity as by the American Indian. And hence 
it happens, that some nations become most cruel to those whom 
they would most wish to favor. Thus, on the borders of Persia, 
some of the tribes of Tartars massacre all the true believers who' 
fall into their hands, but preserve heretics and infidels ; because 
their religion forbids them to make slaves of true believers, and 
allows them to use or sell all others at their pleasure.* 

In looking to the history of tiie world, we find that interest, and 
interest alone, has been enabled successfully to war against the 
fiercer passion of revenge. The only instance of mildness in war 
among the savages of North America, results from the operation 
of interest. Sometimes, when the tril)e has suflered great loss of 
numbers, and stands very much in need of recruits, the prisoner is 

* Tacitus tells us that civil wftrs are always the most cruel, because the prisoners are 
not made slaves. 



14 

saved, and adopted (says Robertson,) as a member of (he nation. 
Pastoral nations require but few slaves, and consequently they save 
but few prisoners for this purpose. Agricultural require more, and 
this state is the most advantageous to slavery. Prisoners of war 
are generally spared by such nations, in consideration of the use 
which may be made of their labor. 

It is curious in this respect, to contemplate the varied success 
with which, under various circumstances, the principle of self in- 
terest combats that of vengeance. The barbarians who overran 
the Roman Empire, existed principally in the pastoral state ; they 
brought along with them their wives and children, and consequent- 
ly ihey required extensive regions for their support and but few 
slaves. We find accordingly, they waged a most cruel, extermina- 
ting war, not even sparing women and children. " Hence," says 
Dr. Robertson, in his preliminary volume to tlie History of Cliarles 
the 5tl), " If a man were called to fix upon a period in the history 
ol the world, during which the condition of tlie human race was 
most calamitous and afllicted, he would, without hesitation, name 
that which elapsed from the deatii of Theodosius the Great, (A. D. 
395,) to the reign of Alboinus in Lombardy," (A. D. 571.) At 
the last mentioned epoch, tlie barbarian inundations spent them- 
selves, and consequently repose was given to the world. 

Slavery was very common at the siege of Troy ; but in conse- 
quence of the very rude state of agriculture prevalent in those days, 
and the great reliance placed on the spontaneous productions of 
the earth, the same number of slaves was not required as in subse- 
quent ages, when agriculture had made greater advances. Hence 
we find the laws of war of a very cruel character — the principle 
of revenge triumphing over every other. These are the evils, 
we are informed by Homer, that follow the capture of a town — 
" the men are killed, the city is burned to the ground, the 
women and children of all ranks are carried off for slaves," 
(Iliad, L. 9.) Again : " Wretch that I am," says the vene- 
rable Priam, *' what evil does the great Jupiter bring on me 
in my old age.'' My sons slain, my daughters dragged into slave- 
ry, violence pervading even the chambers of my palace, and the 
very infants dashed against the ground in horrid sport of war. 1 
n)yself, slain in the vain office of defence, shall be the prey of my 
own dogs perhaps in the very palace gates" ! (Iliad, L. 22.) 

In after times, during the glorious days of the Republics of both 
Greece and Rome, the wants of man had undergone an enlarge- 
ment; agriculture had been pushed to a high state of improve- 
ment, population became more dense, and consequently a more 
abundant production, and more regular and constant application 
of labor became necessary. At this period, slaves were in great 
demand, and therefore the prisoners of war were generally spared 
in order that they might be made slaves. And this mildness did 
not arise so much from their civilization, as from the great demand 
for slaves. All the Roman generals, even the mild Julius, were 



1^ 



15 

sufficiently cruel to put to death when they did not choose to make 
slaves of the captives. Hence, as cruel as were the Greeks and 
Romans in war, they were much milder than the surrounding bar- 
barous nations. In like manner, the wars in Africa have been 
made perhaps more mild by {he slave trade, than they would other- 
wise have been. Instances are frequent, where the prisoner has 
been immediately put to dealh, because a purchaser could not be 
found. The report of the Lords in 1789, speaks of a female cap- 
tive in Africa, for whom an anker of brand}^ had been ofl'ered — but 
before the messenger arrived, her head was cut off. Sir George 
Young saved the life of a beautiful boy, about five years old, at 
Sierra Leone : the child was about to be thrown into the river 
by the person that had him to sell, because he was too young to 
be an object of trade; but Sir George offered a quarter cask of 
Madeira for him, which was accepted.* A multitude of such in- 
stances might easil}^ be cited from commanders of vessels and tra- 
vellers, who have ever visited Africa. And thus do we find, by a' 
review of the history of the world, that slavery alone which ad- 
dresses itself to the principle of self interest is capable of overcom- 
ing that inordinate desire of vengeance which glows in the breast 
of the savage ; and therefore we find the remark made by Vol- 
taire, in his Phi. Die. that "Slavery is as ancient as war, and war 
as human , nature'' is not strictly correct; for many wars havfe 
been too cruel to admit of slavery. 

Let us now close this head by an inquiry into tbe justice of sla- 
very, flowing from the laws of war. And here we may observe in 
the first place, that the whole of the ancient world, and all nations 
of modern times verging on a state of barbarism — never for a mo- 
ment doubted this right. All history proves that they have looked 
upon slavery as a mild punishment, in comparison with what they 
had a right to inflict. And so far from being conscience-stricken, 
when they inflicted the punishment of death or slavery, they seem- 
ed to glory in the severity of the punishment — and to be remorse- 
ful only when from some cause they had not inflicted the worst. 
" Why so tender hearted?" says Agamemnon to Menalaus, seeing 
him hesitate, while a Trojan of high rank, who had the misfortune 
to be disabled by being thrown from his chariot, was begging for 
life, — "Are you and your house so beholden to the Trojans f Let 
not one of them escape destruction from our hands — no, not the 
child within his mother's womb. Let all perish unmourned." — 
And the poet even, gives his sanction to this inhumanity of Aga- 
memnon, who was never characterized as inhuman : " It was justly 
spoken, (says Homer) and he turned his brother's mind." And 
the suppliant was murdered by the hand of the king of men. 
" When the unfortunate monarch of Troy came to beg the body 
of his heroic son, (Hector) we find the conduct of Achilles marked 
by a superior spirit ofgenerosity. Yet, in the very act of grant- 

* See Edwards' West Indies, vol. 2, book 4, chap. 4. 



ing the pious request, he doubts if lie is quite excusable to the soul 
of his departed friend, for remitting the extremity of vengeance 
which he had meditated, and restoring the corse to secure the rites 
of burial."* To ask them, vvhetlier men, with notions similar to 
these, liad a right to kill or enslave the prisoner, would almost be 
like gravely inquiring into the right of tigers and lions to kill each 
other and devour the weaker beasts of the forest. If we look to 
the Republics of Greece and Rome, in the days of their glory and 
civilization, we shall find no one doubting the right to make slaves 
of those taken in war. "No legislator of antiquity," says Vol- 
taire, "ever attempted to abrogate slavery; on the contrary, the 
people the most enthusiastic for liberty — the Athenians, the Lace- 
demonians, the Romans, and the Carthagenians — were those who 
enacted the most severe laws against their serfs. Society was so 
accustomed to this degradation of the species, that Epictetus, who 
was assuredly worth more than his master, never expresses any 
surprise at his being a slave."-}- Julius Caesar, has been reckoned 
one of the' mildest and most clement military chieftains of antiqui- 
ty, and yet there is very little doubt, that the principal object in 
the invasion of Britain, was to procure slaves for the Roman slave 
markets. When he left Britain, it became necessary to collect to- 
gether a large fleet for the purpose of transporting his captives 
across the channel. He sometimes ordered the captive chiefs to 
be executed, and he butchered the whole of Cato's Senate when 
he became inaster of Utica. Paulus Emilins, acting under the 
special orders of the Roman Senate, laid all Epirus waste, a;nd 
brought 150,000 captives in chains to Italy, all of whom were sold 
in the Roman slave markets. Augustus Caesar, was considered 
one of the mildest, most pacific and most politic of the Roman 
Emperors, yet when he rooted out the nation of the Salassii, who 
dwelt upon the Alps, he sold 36,000 persons into slavery. Cato, 
was a large owner of slaves, most of whom he had purchased in 
the slave markets at the sale of prisoners of war.J Aristotle, the 
greatest philosopher of antiquity, and a man of as capacious mind 
as the world ever produced, was a warm advocate of slavery — 
maintaining that it was reasonable, necessary and natural, and ac- 
cordingly in his model of a republic, there were to be compara- 
tively few freemen served by many slaves. § 

If we turn from profane history to Holy Writ — that sacred foun- 
tain whence are derived those pure precepts, and holy laws and 
regulations by which the christian world has ever been governed, 
we shall find that the children of Israel, under the guidance of Je- 
hovah, massacred or enslaved their prisoners of war. So far from 
considering slavery a curse, they considered it a punishment much 
too mild, and regretted from this cause alone its infliction. 

* See Mitford's Greece, vol. 1, chap. 2, sec. 4. 
t See Philosophical Dietionory, title " Slaves." 
I See PlutEirch's Lives, Cato the elder. 
I Aristotle's Politics, book 1, chap. 4. 



17 

The children of Israel, when they marched upon the tribes of 
Canaan, were in a situation very similar to the Northern invaders 
who overran the Roman Empire. They had their wives and chil- 
dren ahmg with them, and wislied to make Canaan their abode. 
Extermination therefore, became necessary ; and accordingly, we 
find that the Gibeonites alone, who practised upon the princes of 
Israel by a fraud, escaped the dreadful scene of carnage. They 
were enslaved, and so far from regretting their lot, they seem to 
have delighted in it; and the children of Israel, instead of mourn- 
ing over the destiny of the enslaved Gibeonites, murmured tliat 
the}^ were not massacred — " and all the congregation murmured 
against the princes."' And the answer of the princes was, " we 
will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath 
which we swear unto them." "But let them be hewers of wood 
and drawers of water unto all the congregation, as the princes liad 
promised them."* 

But it is needless to multiply instances farther to illustrate the 
ideas of the ancient world in regard to their rights to kill or en- 
slave at pleasure the unfortunate captive. Nor will we now cite 
the example of Africa, the great storehouse of slavery for the mo- 
dern world, which so completely sustains our position in regard to 
the opinions of men on this subject, farther than to make an ex- 
tract from a speech delivered in the British House of Commons 
by Mr. Henniker, in 1789, in whieh the speaker asserts that a let- 
ter had been received by George III, from one of the most power- 
ful of African potentates, the Emperor of Dahomey, which letter 
admirably exemplifies African's notions about the right to kill or 
enslave prisoners of war. "He (Emperor of Dahomey) stated," 
said Mr. H., " that as he understood King George was the great- 
est of white kings, so he thought himself the greatest of black ones. 
He asserted that he could lead 500,000 men armed into the field, 
that being the pursuit to which all his subjects were bred, and the 
women only staying at home to plant and manure the earth. He 
had himself fought two hundred and nine battles, with great repu- 
tation and success, and had conquered the great king of Ardah. 
The king's head was to this day preserved with the flesh and hair; 
the heads of his generals were distinguished by being placed on 
each side of the doors of their Fttiches ; with the heads of the in- 
ferior officers they paved the space before the doors ; and the heads 
of the common soldiers formed a sort of fringe or out work round 
the walls of the palace. Since this war, he had experienced the 
greatest good fortune, and he hoped in good time to be able to 
complete the out walls of all his great houses, to the number of 
seven, in the same manner."! 

Mr. Norris, who visited this empire in 1772, actually testifies to 
the truth of this letter. He found the- palace of the Emperor an 

* See 9lh chapter of Joshua. 

t See Hazlitz's British Eloquence, vol. 2. 



18 

htimense assemblage of cane and mud tents enclosed by a iiigli 
wall. Tlie skulls and jaw bones of enemies slain in bailie, form- 
ed the favorite ornaments of the palares and temples. The king's 
apartments were paved, and the walls and roof stuck over with 
these horrid trophies. And if a farther supply appeared at any 
lime desirable, he aimounced to his general, that " his liouse 
wanted thatch," when a war for that purpose was immediately 
undertaken.* Who can for a moment be so absurd as to imagine 
that such a prince as this could doubt of his right to make slaves 
in war, when he gloried in being able to t+iatch his houses with 
the heads of his enemies.'' Wlio could doubt that any thing else 
than a strong sense of interest, would ever put an end to such bar- 
barity and ferocity ? Our limits will not allow us to be more mi- 
nute, however interesting the subject. 

And, therefore, we will now examine into the right, according to 
the law of nations — the slv'ict jus gentium — and we shall find all 
the writers agree in the justice of slavery, under certain circum- 
stances. Groliiis says, that, as the law of nature permits prisoners 
of war to be killed, so the same law has introduced tlie right of 
making them slaves, that the captor;, in view to the benefit arising 
from the labor or sale of their prisoners, might be induced to spare 
them.t From the general practice of nations before the time of 
Puflendorf, he came to .the conclusion that slavery has been estab- 
lished "by the free consent of the opposing parties. "J 

Rutherforlh, in his Institutes, says "since all the members of a na- 
tion, against which a just war is made, are bound to repair the da- 
mages that gave occasion to the war, or that are done in it, and 
likewise to make satisfaction for the expenses of carrying it on; 
the law of nations will allow those who are prisoners to be made 
slaves by the nation which lakes them; that so their labor or the 
price for which they are sold, may discharge these demands." But 
he most powerfully combats the more cruel doctrine laid down by 
Grotius, that the master has a right to take away the life of his 
slave. § Bynkershoek, contends for the higher right of putting pri- 
soners of war to death : "We may however (enslave) if we please" 
he adds, "and indeed we do sometimes still exercise that right upon 
those who enforce it against us. Therefore the Dutch are in the 
habit of selling to the Spaniards as slaves, the Algerines, Tuni- 
sians and Tripolitans, whom they take prisoners in the Atlantic or 
]\Iediterranean. Nay, in the year 1G61, the states general, gave 
orders to their admiral, to sell as slaves all the pirates that he should 
take. The same thing was done in 1664."|| Vattel, tlie most hu- 
mane of all the standard authors on National law, asks — " are pri- 
soners of war to be made slaves .''" To which he answers, " Yes ; 

* See Family Library, No. 16, p. 199. 
fL. 3, chap. 7, sec. 5. 

I Book 6, chap. 3. ^ 
§ Book, chap. 9, sec. 1 7. 

II Treatise on the Law of War, Du Ponceau's Eldition, p. 21, 



19 

in cases which give a right to kill them, when ihey have rendered 
themselves personally guilty of some crime deserving death."* 
Even Locke, who lias so ably explored all the facuhies of the mind, 
and who so nobly stood forth against the monstrous and absurd 
doctrines of Sir Robert Filnier and the passive submissionists of his 
day, admits the right to make slaves of prisoners whom we might 
justly have killed. Speaking of a prisoner who has forfeited his 
life, he says, " he to whom he has forfeited it may, wiien he has him 
in his power, delay to take it, and make use of him to his own ser- 
vice, and he does him no injury by it."t Blackstone, it would 
seem, denies the right to make prisoners of war slaves; for he says 
we had no right to enslave unless we had the right to kill, and we 
had no right to kill, unless " in cases of absolute necessity, for 
self-defence; and it is plain this absolute necessity did not subsist, 
since the victor did not actually kill him, but made him prisoner."! 
Upon this we have to remark 1st. that Judge Blackstone here speaks 
of slavery in its pure unmitigated form, " whereby an unlimited 
power is given to the master over the life and fortune of the slave. "<§. 
Slavery scarcely exists any where in this form, and if it did it would 
be a continuance of a state of war, as Rousseau justly observes, 
between the captive and the captor. Again — Blackstone, in his 
argument upon this subject, seems to misunderstand the grounds 
upon which civilians place the justification of slavery, as arising 
from the laws of war. It is well known that most of the horrors 
of war spring from the principle of retaliation, and not as Black- 
stone supposes, universally from " absolute necessity." If two ci- 
vilized nations of modern times are at war, and one hangs up with- 
out any justifiable cause all of the enemy who fall into its posses- 
sion, the other does not hesitate to inflict the same punishment upon 
an equal number of its prisoners. It is the " lex talionis,^[ and not 
absolute necessity, which gives rise to this. 

The colonists of this country up to the revolution, during, and 
even since that epoch, have put to death the Indian captives, when- 
ever the Indians had been in the habit of massacreing indiscrimi- 
nately. It was not so much absolute necessity as the law of retali- 
ation, which justified this practice; and, the civilians urge that the 
greater right includes the lesser; and, consequently, the right to 
kill involves the more humane and more useful right of enslaving. 
In point of fact, it would seem the Indians were often enslaved 
by the colonists. || And although we find no distinct mention made 
by any of the historians of the particular manner in which this sla- 
very arose, yet it is not difficult to infer that it must have arisen 
from the laws of war, being a commutation of the punishment of 
death for slavery. Again — if the nation with which you are at v<'ar 

* See La-w of Nations, book 3, chap. 8, sec. 152. 
t On Civil Government, chap. 6. 

I See Tucker's Blackstone, vol. 2, p. 423. 

§ Blackstone's Commentaries, in loco citato. 

II See Tucker's Blackstone, vol. 2, Appendix, note H. 



20 

makes slaves of all your citizens falling into its possession, surely 
you have the right to retaliate and do so likewise. It is the "/pa? 
ta/ioitia," and iioi absolute neoessily, wliich justifies you ; and, if 
you should choose (Voni pohcy to wiiive your right, 3 our ability to 
do so \\(Mil(l not sure ly (irovc that y<tii had no right at all to etisUive. 
Such a doctrine as this would prove that the rights of belligerents, 
were in the inverse ratio of their strength — a doctrine which, pushed 
to the extreme, would always reduce the hostile parties to a precise 
equality — which is a perfect absurdity. If we were to suppose a 
civilized nation in the heart of Africa, surrounded b}' such princes 
as the King of Dahomey, there is no doubt but that such a nation 
would be justifiHl)Ie in killing or enslaving at its opiion, in time of 
war, and if it' did neither, it would relinquish a perfect right.* 
We have now considered the most fruitful source of sVavery, Lmvs 
of War, and shall proceed more briefly to the consideration of the 
other three which we liave mentioned, taking up — 

2d. Slnte of Property and Feebleness <f Government. — In tra- 
cing the manners and customs of a people who have emerged from 
a state of barbarism, and examining into the nature and character 
of their institutions, we find it of the first importance to look to the 
condition of property, in order that we may conduct our inquiries 
with judgment and knowledge. The character of the govern- 
ment, in spite of all its forms, depends, more on the condition of 
property, than on any one circumstance beside. The relations 
which the diflerent classes of society bear towards each other, the 
distinction into high and low, noble and plebeian, in fact, depend 
almost exclusively upon the state of property. It may be with truth 
affirmed, that the exclusive owners of the property ever have been, 
ever will, and perhaps ever ought to be, the virtual rulers of man- 
kind. If then, in any age or nation, there should be but one spe- 
cies of property, and that should be exclusively owned by a portion 
of citizens, that portion would become inevitably the masters of 
the residue. And if the government .should be so feeble as to 
leave each one in a great measure to protect himself, this circum- 
stance would have a tendency to throw the property into the hands 
of a few, who would rule with despotic sway over the many. And 
this was the condition of Europe during the middle ages, under 
what what was termed the feudal system. There was in fact, but 
one kind of property, and that consisted of land. Nearly all the 
useful arts had perished, — commerce and manufactures could scarce- 
ly be said to exist at all, and a dark night of universal ignorance 
enshrouded the human mind. The landholders of Europe, the 
feudal aristocrats, possessing all the property, necessarily and ine- 
vitably as fate itself, usurped all the power; and in consequence of 

=»' We shall hereafter see that our colony at Liberia may at some future day, be pla- 
ced in an extremely embarrassing condition from this very cause. It may not in future 
wars have strength sufficient to forego the exercise of-the right of killing or enslaving, 
and if it have the strength, it may not have the mildness and humanity. Revenge is 
swtet, and tlie murder of a brother or father, and the slavery of a mother or sister will 
not easily be forgotten. 



21 

the feebleness of government, and the resulthig necessity that each 
one should do justice for himself, the laws of primogeniture and 
entails were resorted to as a device to prevent the weakening of 
families by too great a subdivision or alienation of property, and 
from the same cause, small allodial proprietors were obliged to 
give up their small estates to some powerful baron or large land- 
holder in consideration of protection, which he would be unable to 
procure in any other manner.* Moreover, the great landholders 
of those days had only one way of spending their estates, even 
when they were not barred by entails, and that was by employing 
a large number of retainers, — for they could not then spend their 
estates as spendthrifts generally squander them, in luxuries and 
manufactures, in consequence of the rude state of the arts — all the 
necessities of man being supplied directly from the farms ;f and 
the great author of the wealth of natioiis, has most philosophical- 
ly remarked, that ^e\v great estates have been spent from benevo- 
lence alone. And the people of those days could find no employ- 
ment except on the land, and consequently were entirely dependent 
on the landlords, subject to their caprices and whims, paid accord- 
ing to their pleasure, and entirely under their control ; in fine, 
they were slaves complete. Even the miserable cities of the feudal 
times were not independent, but were universally subjected to the 
barons or great landholdefs, whose powerful protection against the 
lawless rapine of the times, could only be purchased by an entire 
surrender of liberty. J 

Thus the property of the feudal ages was almost exclusively of 
one kind. The feebleness of government, together with the laws 
of primogeniture and entails, threw that property into the hands 
of a few, and the difficulty of alienation, caused by the absence of 
all other species of property, had a tendency to prevent that change 
of possession which we so constantly witness in modern times. — 
Never was there then perhaps so confirmed and so permanent an 
aristocracy as that of the feudal ages ; it naturally sprang from 
the condition of property and the obstacles to its alienation. The 
aristocracy alone embraced in those days the freemen of Europe ; 
all the rest were slaves, call tliem by what name you please, and 
doomed by the unchanging laws of nature to remain so till com- 
merce and manufactures had arisen and with them had sprung into 
existence a new class of capitalists, the tiers etat of Europe, whose 
existence first called for new forms of government, and whose ex- 
ertions either have or will revolutionize the whole of Europe. A 
revolution in the state of property is alwa3'S a premonitory symp- 
tom of a revolution in government and in the state of society, and 

* Upon this subject, see Robertson's 1st vol. Hist. Charles 5th, Htillam's Middle 
Ages, Gilbert Suuirt on the Progress of Society, and all the writers on feudal tenures. 

t" There is not a vestige to be discovered, for several centuries, of any considerable 
manufactures." ..." R.ich men kept domestic artisans among their servants; even kings in 
the ninth century, had their clothes made by the women upon then- farms." — Hallam's 
Middle Ages, vol. 2, pp. 260, 261, Philad. Edition. 

1 Upon this subject, see both Hallam and Robertson. 
4 



22 

without the one, you cannot meet with permanent success in the 
other. The slaves of Southern Europe could never have been 
emancipated, except through the agency of commerce and manu- 
factures and the consequent rapid rise of cities, accompanied with 
a more regular and better protected industry, producing a vast 
augmentation in tlie products which administer lo our necessities 
and comforts, and increasing in a proportionate degree the sphere 
of our wants and desires. In the same way we shall shew, before 
bringing this article to a close, that if the slaves of our Southern 
country shall ever be liberated and suffered to remain among us with 
their present limited wants and longing desire for a siate of idle- 
ness, they would fall inevitably, by the nature of things, into a 
stale of slavery from which no government could rescue them, un- 
less by a radical change of all their habits and a most awful and 
fearful change in the whole system of property throughout the 
country. The state of property then may fairly be considered a 
Very fruitful source of slavery. It was the most fruitful source du- 
ring the feudal ages — it is the foundation of slavery throughout 
the Northeastern regions of Europe and the populous countries 
of the continent of Asia. We are even disposed to think, contra- 
ry to the general opinion, that the condition of property operated 
prior to the customs of war in the production of slavery. We are 
fortified in this opinion, by the exampfe of Mexico and Peru in 
South America. In both of these empires, certainly the farthest 
advanced and most populous of the new world, " private proper- 
ty," says Dr. Robertson, " was perfectly understood, and estab- 
lished in its full extent." The most abject slavery existed in both 
these countries, and what still farther sustains our position, it very 
nearly, especially in Mexico, resembled that of the feudal ages. 
"The great body of the people was in a most humiliating state. A 
considerable number, known by the name o{ Mayeques, nearly re- 
sembling in condition those peasants who, under various denomi- 
nations, were considered during the prevalence of the feudal sys- 
tem, as instruments of labor attached to the soil. Others were 
reduced to the lowest form of subjection, that of domestic servi- 
tude, and felt the utmost rigor of that wretched state."* 

Now, slavery in both these countries must have arisen from the 
state of property, for the laws of war were entirely too cruel to 
admit of the slavery of captives among the Mexicans. "They 
fought," says Dr. Robertson, " to gratify their vengeance, by shed- 
ding the hood of their enemies — no captive was ever ransomed or 
spared. "f And the Peruvians, though much milder in war, seem 
not to have made slaves of their captives, though we must con- 
fess that there is great difficulty in explaining their great compara- 
tive clemency to prisoners in war, unless by supposing they were 
made slaves.f We have no doubt likewise, if we could obtain suffi- 

* Robertson's America, pp. 105, 107. f Ibid. vol. 2, p. 114. 

I We are sorry we have not the means of satisfactorily investigating this subject. 
If slavery was established among them from the laws of war, it would be one of the 



23 

cient insight into the past history and condition of Africa, that sla- 
very would be found to have arisen in many of those countries, ra- 
ther from the state of property thnn the laws of war ; for even to 
this day, man}' of the African princes are too cruel and sanguina- 
ry in war to forego the barbarous pleasure of murdering tlie cap- 
tives, and yet slavery exists in their dominions to its full extent. 

We will not here pause to examine into the justice or injustice 
of that species of slavery, which is sure to arise from a faulty dis- 
tribution of propert}^ because it is the inevitable result of the great 
law of necessity, whicii itself has no law, and consequently about 
which it is utterly useless to argue. We will therefore proceed at 
once to the third cause assigned for slavery — bargain, and sale. 

3d. Cati^e of Slavery, Bargain and Sale.' — Tliis source of sla- 
very might easily be reduced to that which depends on the state 
of propert}', but for the sake of perspicuity, we prefer keeping them 
apart. Adam Smith has well observed that there is a strong pro- 
pensity in man, " to truck, barter and exchange one thing for ano- 
ther," and both the parties generally intend to derive an advantage 
from the exchange. This disposition seems to extend to every 
thing-susceptible of being impressed with the character of proper- 
ty or exchangeable value, or from which any great or signal 
advantage may be derived — it has been made to extend at times 
to life and liberty. Generals in time of war, have pledged their 
lives for the performance of their contracts. At the conclusion of 
peace, semi-barbarous nations have been in the habit of interchang- 
ing hostages — generally the sons of princes and noblemen — for the 
mutual observance of treaties, whose lives were forfeited by a 
violation of the plighted faith; and in all ages, where the practice 
has not been interdicted by law, individuals have occasionally sold 
their own liberty or that of others dependent on them. We have 
already seen how the small allodial possessors, during the feudal 
ages, were obliged to surrender their lands and liberty to some 
powerful baron for that protection which could be procured in no 
other manner. Throughout the whole ancient world, the sale of 
one's own liberty, and even that of his children, was common. The 
non-payment of debts, or fadure to comply with contracts, fre- 
quently subjected the unfortunate ofiender to slavery in both Greece 
and Rome. Instances of slavery from bargain and sale, occur in 
Scripture. Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of 
silver, and carried down to Egypt in slavery. But this was a black 
and most unjustifiable act on the part of his envious brothers. — 
There are other parts of Scripture where the practice of buying 
and selling slaves seems to be justified. The Hebrew laws per- 
mitted the selling of even the Jews into slavery for six years. "If 
thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the 
seventh he shall go out free for nothing." And if the servant 

most triumphant examples wliich history affords of the effect of slavery, in mitigating 
the cruelties of war ; for it is a singular fact, that the Peruvians were the only people 
ill the new world, who did not murder their prisoners. 



24 

chose at the expiration of six years to remain with liis master as a 
slave, he might do so on having his ear bored through with an awl. 
It seems fathers could sell their children — Thus: "and if a man sell 
his daughter to be a maid servant, slie shall not go out as the men 
servants do."* An unlimited right to purchase slaves from among 
foreigners seems to have been granted, whether they had been 
slaves or not before the purchase ; thus, in the twenty-fifth chap- 
ter of Leviticus, we find the following injunction: — "Both thy 
bondmen and bondmaids which thou shalt have, shall be of the hea- 
then that are round about you ; of them shall ye buy bondmen and 
bondmaids. Moieover, of the children of strangers who sojourn 
among 3'ou, of them shall ye buy, and of the families that ore with 
you, which tliey begqt in your land ; and they shall be your pos- 
session. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your chil- 
dren after you, to inherit them for a possession ; they shall be your 
hond^nen for ever." \ We may well suppose that few persons would 
ever be induced to sell themselves or children into slavery, unless 
under very severe pressure from want. Accordingly, we find the 
practice most prevalent among the most populous and the most sa- 
vage nations, uiiere the people are most frequently subjected to 
dirths and famines. Thus, in Hindostan and China, there is no- 
thing more frequent than this practice of selling liberty. "Every 
year," said a Jesuit who resided in Hindostan, " we baptize a thou- 
sand children whom their parents can no longer feed, or who being 
likely to die, are sold to us by their mothers in order to get rid of 
them." The great legislator of Hindostan, INIenu, in his ordi- 
nances, which are described by Sir William Jones, justifies this 
practice in time of scarcity. "Ajigarta," says Menu in one of 
his ordinances, " dying with hunger, was going to destroy his own 
son by selling him for some cattle ; yet he was guilty of no crime, 
for he only sought a remedy against famishing." "In China," 
says Duhalde, " a man sometimes sells his son, and even himself 
and wife at a very moderate price. The common mode is to mort- 
gage themselves with a condition of redemption, and a great num- 
ber of men and maid servants are thus bound in a family." There 
is no doubt but at this moment in every densely populated coun- 
try, hundreds would be willing to sell themselves into slavery if 
the laws would permit them, whenever they were pressed by famine. 
Ireland seems to be the country of modern Europe most subjected 
to these dreadful visitations. Suppose then, we reverse the vision 
of the Kentucky Senator,| and imagine that Ireland could be se- 
vered during those periods of distress from the Britannic Isle, and 
could float like the fabled Island of Delos across the Ocean and 
be placed by our side, and our laws should inhumanely forbid a 
single son of Erin from entering our territory unless as a slave, 
to be treated exactly like the African, is there any man acquaint- 

* See 21st chapter of Exodus. 

1 44, 45 and 46 verses. 

JMr. Clay in the debate on his resokitions on the Tariff, 1832. 



ed with the state of the Irish, in years of scarcity, who would 
douht for a moment, but that thousands, much as this oppressed 
people are in love with liberty, would enter upon this hard condi- 
tion, if tliey could find purcliasers. Indeed, tlie melancholy fact 
has too often occurred in Ireland, of individurds committiiic; crimes 
merely for the purpose of being' thrown into the houses of correc- 
tion, where they could obtain bread and water! 

A.mong savages, famines are much more dreadful than among 
civilized nations, where they are provided against by previous ac- 
cumulation and commerce. Dr. Robertson has given us a glow- 
ing and no doubt correct picture of the dreadful ravages of famine 
among the North American Indians, and on such occasions we are 
informed by tlie " Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuse," that the ties 
of nature are no longer binding. A father will sell his son for a 
knife or hatchet.* But, unfortunately, among savages in the hunt- 
ing state, scarcely any one can do more than n)aintain himself 
and one or two cliildren, and therefore cannot aflbrd to keep a 
slave. 

If we turn to Africa, we shall find this cause of slavery frequent- 
ly operating with all its power ; and accordingly Parke lias ranked 
Famine as the second among the four causes which he assigns for 
slavery in Africa. " There are many instances of freemen," says 
he, " voluntarily surrendering up their liberty to save their lives. 
During a great scarcity, which lasted for three years in the coun- 
tries of the Gambia, great numbers of people became slaves in this 
manner. Dr. Laidley assured me, tliat at that time, many free- 
men came and begged with great earnestness, to he put upon his 
slave chain, to save them from perishing with hunger. Large fami- 
lies are very often exposed to absolute want, and as the parents 
have almost uidimited authority over their children, it frecjuently 
happens in all parts of Africa, that some of the latter are sold to 
purchase provisions for the rest of the family. When I was at 
Jarra, Damon Jumma pointed out to me three young slaves which 
he had purchased in this manner. "f Bruce, in his travels in Afri- 
ca, saw whole villages and districts of country depopulated by 
the famines which had visited them, and gives us a most appalling 
picture of the walking skeletons and lawless rapine which were 
every where exhibited during those frightful periods of distress. — 
We cannot wonder then, under these circunistances, that famine 
should be a fruitful source of slavery, by giving rise to a sale of 
liberty for the preservation of life. 

The remark of Judge Blackstone as to this kind of slavery is 
known to every one — that every sale implies a ^^ quid pro quo^^ — 
but that in the case of slavery there can be no equivalent, no quid 
pro quo — tor nothing is an equivalent for liberty ; and even the pur- 
chase money, or the price whatever it might be, would instantly be- 



* Tom. 8. 

^ Parke's Travels in Africa, chap. 22, page 216, N. Y. Edition. 



2G 

long to the master of the slave.* Upon this we would remark, that 
Blackstone seems to have his attention fixed exclusively on those 
countries where every man can easily maintain himself, and where 
consequently his life can never be in jeopardy from want. If there 
is any country in the world to vvhicii his argument will apply, that 
country is ours. We believe every man here may obtain a subsis- 
tence, either by his own exertions or by the aid of the poor rates. 
But tliis is far from being the case with semi-barbarous or densely 
populated countiies. Again — Blackstone alludes to that pure state 
of slavery where, a man's life, liberty and property, are at the mercy 
of his master. That is far from being the condition of slavery now. 
In most parts of the world the slave is carefully protected in life, 
limb and even in a moderate share of liberty, by the policy of the 
laws; and his nourishment and subsistence are positively enjoined. 
Where this is the case, we can imagine many instances in which li- 
berty might have an equivalent. Who for a moment can doubt but 
that the abundant daily supplies of subsistence, consisting of whol- 
iomemeat, bread, and frequently vegetables and refreshing drinks be- 
sides, which are furnished to our slaves, are more than an equivalent 
for the liberty of the Chinese laborer, who exhausts himself with hard 
labor — feeds on his scanty and unseasoned rice, — tastes no whole- 
some meat from the beginning to the end of the toilsome year, — 
sees his family frequently perishing before his eyes, or more cruel 
fitill, consents himself to be the executioner, in order that he may 
release them fron) the intolerable torments of unsatisfied wants, and 
who, even in seasons of ordinary supply, fishes up with eagerness 
the vilest garbage from the river or canal, and voraciously' devours 
meat which with us would be left to be fed on by the vultures of the 
air. The fact is, the laborer in this hard condition is already a 
slave, or rather in a situation infinitely worse than slavery — he is 
subjected to all the hardships and degradation of the slave and de- 
rives none of the advantages. In the case of famine, the equivalent 
seems to be life for liberty ; and when this is the case, allliough the 
philosopher may consider death as preferable to slavery — *' yet," 
says Parke, "the poor negro when fainting with hunger thinks like 
Esau of old, " behold I am at the point to die, and what profit shall 
this birthright do to 7«e." The reason why persons do not more 
frequently sell themselves into slavery is, because they are forbid- 
den by the laws, or can find no purchasers. So far from persons 
not selling their liberty because there is no equivalent, it is directly 
the contrary in most countries ; the price or equivalent, consisting 
of continued support, protection, Stc. is too great — more than can 
be afforded. The capitalist in Great-Britain, could not afford to 
purchase the operative and treat him as we do the slave ; the price 
paid, the quid pro quo of Blackstone would be more than the liber- 
ty would be worth. We have no doubt, if the English laws were 
to allow of slavery, such as we have in this country, there would 

J Tucker's Blackstone, vol. 2, page 423. 



27 

be many more persons wishing- to sell their liberty than of 
those wishing to buy ! But whether the remarks of Judge 
Blacksione are correct in tlieory or not, is a matter of no prac- 
tical importance ; for in point of fact, as we have shewn by 
undeniable testimony, bargain and sale have ever been a most 
fruitful source of slavery in ancient times, and among many peo- 
ple of the present day ; and consequently we could not pretermit 
it in a general survey of tire sources of slavery. We shall now 
proceed to a consideration of the last mentioned source of slavery. 

4ih, Crime. — All governments, even those of the States of our 
confederacy, have ever been considered as perfectly justifiable in 
enslaving for crime. All our penitentiaries are erected upon this 
principle, and slavery in them, of the most abject and degrading 
character, endures for a certain number of months, years, or for 
life, accofding to the offence. In South America and Russia the 
criminals are frequently sentenced to slavery in the mines, and in 
France and England to the gallies and work houses ; but as it is 
principally with domestic slavery that we are concerned in this 
article, we shall not consider farther that which is of a public cha- 
racter. 

Throughout the ancient world, domestic slavery, arising from 
crime, seems to have been very common. We have already spo- 
ken of the slavery which was inflicted frequently on insolvent debtors 
in both Greece and Rome. In Africa too, we find insolvency a 
very frequent source of slavery. " Of all the oflences," says 
Parke, *' H' insolvency may be so called, to which the laws of Afri- 
ca have afiixed the punishment of slavery, this is the most com- 
mon. A negro trader commonly contracts debts on some mercan- 
tile speculation, either from his neighbors to purchase such articles 
as will sell to advantage in a distant market, or from the Europe- 
an traders on the coast — payment to be made in a given time. In 
both cases, the situation of the adventurer is exactly the same: if 
he succeeds, he may secure an independency ; if he is unsuccessful, 
his person and services are at the disposal of another — for in Africa 
not only the efiects of the insolvent, but the insolvent himself, is 
sold to satisfy the lawful demands of his creditors."* Insolvency 
however, is, after all. rather a misfortune than a crime ; and we 
rank it here as a crime more in deference to the institutions of the 
ancients and the customs of certain modern nations, than as an in- 
dication of our own sentiments — for we are decidedly of opinion, 
that slavery is much too high a penalty to be attached to what in 
many cases is sheer misfortune. But besides insolvency, the laws 
of Africa affix slavery as a punishment to the crimes of murder, 
adultery and witchcraft. In case of murder, the nearest relation of 
the murdered, after conviction, may eitlier kill or sell into slavery 
at his option. In adultery, the offended party may enslave or de- 
mand a ransom at pleasure ; and as to witchcraft, Parke not hav- 
ing met with any trial for this offence, could only assure us that it 

* Parke's Travel 5 in Africa, p. 216, 



28 

was a source of slavery, though not common.* We have now sur- 
veyed the principal sources of slavery, and although we do not 
pretend to be minute and complete in the division which we have 
made, we hope we have said enough upon this branch to shew that 
slavery is inevitable in the progress of society, from its first and 
most savage state to the last and most refined. We started out 
M'ith announcing the (act, startling to those who have never reflect- 
ed upon the subject, that slavery existe'd throughout the whole of 
the ancient, and in a very large portion of the modern world. We 
have farther shewn by the preceding reasoning, that this was no 
accident, the mere result of chance, but was a necessary and inevita- 
ble consequence of the principles of human nature and the state of 
property. We shall now proceed to inquire briefly into the ad- 
vantaeres which have resulted to mankind from the institution of 
slavery. 

Advantages tvhich have resulted to the world from the institution 
of Slavery. — When we turn our thoughts from this world "of im- 
perfeclions"to the God of nature, we love to contemplate him as 
perfect and immaculate, and amid all t[)e divine attributes with 
which we deiight to clothe him, none stands more conspicuous 
than his benevolence. To look upon him in this liglit, may be said 
to be almost the impulse of an instinct of our nature, and the most 
enlarged experience and perfect knowledge combine in fortifying 
and strengthening this belief. Accordingly, when we look abroad 
to the works of omnipotence— -when we contemplate the external, 
the physical world — and again, when we turn to tlie world of mind, 
we never find evil the sole object and end of creation. Happiness 
is always the main design, evil is merely incidental. All the laws 
of matter, every principle, and even passion of man. when rightly 
uifflersiood, demonstiate tiie general benevolence of the Deit}', 
even in this world. " It is perhaps," sajs Mr. Allison, " the most 
striking and the most luminous fact in the history of our intellec- 
tual nature, that that principle of curiosity which is the instinctive 
spring of all scientific inquiry into the phenomena of matter or of 
mind, is never satisfied until it terminates in the discovery not only 
of design, but of benevolent design." Well then might we have 
concluded, from the fact that slavery was the necessary result of 
the laws of mind and matter, that it marked some benevolent design, 
and was intended by our Creator for some useful purpose. Let us 
inquire then what that useful purpose is, and we have no hesita- 
tion in affirming, that slavery has been perhaps the principal 
means for impelling forward the civilization o'f mankind. Without 
its agency, society must have remained sunk into that deplorable 
state of barbarism and wretchedness which characterized the inha- 
bitants of the western world, when first discovered by Columbus. 

We have already spoken of the great advantage of slavery in miti- 
gating the horrors of savage warfare ; but not only is this most 

+ Parke's Ti'avels, p. 217. 



29 

desirable eflect produced, but it has a farther tendency to check 
the frequency of war, and to destroy that migratory spirit in na- 
tions and tribes, so destructive to the peace and tranquillity of the 
world. Savages living in the hunter's stale, must have an exten- 
sive range of country for the suppl3^ of the wants of even a few 
persons. " Hence," says Dr. Robertson, " it is of the utmost im- 
portance to prevent neighboring tribes from destroying or disturb- 
ing the game in their hunting grounds they guard this national 
property with a jealous attention. But as their territories are ex- 
tensive, and the boundaries of them not exactly ascertained, innu- 
merable subjects of disputes arise, which seldom terminate without 
bloodshed."* Uncertain boundaries, constant roaming through 
the forest in search of game, and all the unchecked and furious 
passions of the savage, lead on to constant and exterminating wars 
among the tribes. What then, let us ask, can alone prevent this 
constant scene of strife and massacre ? Nothing but that which 
can bind them down to the soil, which can establish homes and fire- 
sides, which can change the wandering character of the savage, 
and make it his interest to cultivate peace instead of war. Slave- 
ry produces these effects : it necessarily leads on to the taming 
and rearing of numerous flocks, and to the cultivation of the soil. 
Hunting can never support slavery. Agriculture first suggests 
the notion of servitude, and, as often happens in the politico-eco- 
nomical world, the eflect becomes in turn a powerfully operating 
cause. Slavery gradually fells the forest, and thereby destroys the 
haunts of the wild beasts— it gives rise to agricultural production, 
and thereby renders mankind less dependent on the precarious and 
diminishing production of the chase — it thus gradually destroys 
the roving and unquiet life of the savage — it furnishes a home and 
binds him down to the soil — it converts the idler and the wanderer 
into the man of business and the agriculturist. 

If we look to the condition of Africa, and compare it with that 
of the American Indians, we shall find a complete illustration of 
these remarks, and Africa, as we shall soon see, would enjoy a 
much greater exemption from war, if it were not for the slave 
trade, whose peculiar operation we shall presently notice. 

But secondly, the labor of the slave when slavery is first in- 
troduced, is infinitely more productive than that of the freeman. 
Dr. Robertson, in his history of America, speaks of the acquisition 
of dominion over the inferior animals, as a step of capital impor- 
tance in the progress of civilization. It may with truth be afHrra- 
ed, that the taming of man and rendering him fit for labor, is more 
important than the taming and using the inferior animals, and no- 
thing seems so well calculated to effect this as slavery. Savages 
have ever been found to be idle and unproductive — except in the 
chase. The Aborigines of North America resembled rather beasts 
of prey, says Dr. Robertson, than animals formed for labor. They 

♦History of America, vol. 1, p. 192 
5 



30 

were not only averse from toil, but seemed at first entirely incapa^ 
ble of it. There is notliing wliich so completely proves the gene- 
ral indolence and inactivity of the Indians, as their verv moderate 
appetites. Their constitutional temperance exceeded that of the 
most mortified hermits, and the appetites of the Spaniards (gene- 
rally reckoned very temperate in Europe,) appeared to the natives 
insatiably voracious, and they afiirmed that one Spaniard devour- 
ed in a day more food than was enough for ten Indians.* 

The iniprovidence and utter recklessness of the savage are noticed 
too by all the historians. " They follow blindly," says Robertson, 
"the impulse of the appetite which they feel, but are entirely re- 
gardless of distant consequences, and even of those removed in the 
least degree from immediate apprehension. When on the approach 
of evening, a Carabee feels himself disposed to go to rest, no con- 
sideration will tempt him to sell liis hammock. But in the morn- 
ing, when he is sallying out to the business or pastime of the day, 
he will part with it for the slightest toy that catches his fancy. At 
the close of winter, while the impression of what he has sufl'ered 
from the rigor of the climate is fresh in the mind of the North 
American, he sets himself with vigor to prepare materials for erect- 
ing a comfortable hut to protect him against the inclemency of the 
succeeding season ; but as soon as the weather becomes mild, lie 
forgets what is past, abandons his work, and never thinks of it 
more, until the return of cold compels him when too late to re- 
sume it."t/ There is nothing but slavery which can destroy those 
habits of indolence and sloth, and eradicate the character of im- 
providence and carelessness which mark the independent savage. 
He may truly be compared to the wild beast of the forest — he must 
be broke and tamed before he becomes fit for labor and for the 
task of rearing and providing for a family. There is nothing but 
slavery which can effect this — the means may appear exceedingly 
harsh and cruel — and, as among wild beasts many may die in the 
process of taming and subjugating, so among savages many may 
not be able to stand the hardships of servitude; but in the end, it 
leads on to a milder and infinitely better condition than that of 
savage independence, gives rise to greater production, increases 
the provisions in nature's great storehouse, and invites into exis- 
tence a more numerous population, better fed and better provided ; 
and thus gives rise to society, and consequently speeds on more 
rapidly the cause of civilization./ But upon this great, this deli- 
cate and all important subject, we wish to risk no vain theories, 
no unfounded conjectures — from beginning to end we shall speak 
conscientiously, and never knowingly plant in our bosom a thorn 
which may rmikle there. 

Let us then see, whether the above assertions may not be satis- 
factorily proved, paradoxical as they may at first appear, by fact 

* Robertson's America, vol, 1 , book 4. 
t History of America, vol, 1,'pp. 170, 17 J. 



31 

and experience. If we turn to the Western world, where an ample 
field is presented for the contemplation of man in his first and ru- 
dest state, we find that slavery existed no where throughout the 
American continent except in Peru and J\loxico, and tliese were 
decided!}' the most flourishing portions of this vast continent. — 
" When compared," says Dr. Robertson, "with other parts of the 
new world, Mexico and Peru may be considered as polished states. 
Instead of small independent hostile tribes, struggling for subsis- 
tence amidst woods and marshes, strangers to industry and arts, 
unacquainted with subordination, and almost without the appear- 
ance of regular government, we find countries of great extent sub- 
jected to the dominion of one sovereign, the inhabitants collected 
together in cities, the wisdom and foresight of rulers employed in 
providiiig f(>r the maintenance and security of the people, the em- 
pire of laws in some measure established, the authority of religion 
recognized, many of tlie arts essential to life brought to some de- 
gree of maturit}', and the dawn of such as are ornamental begin- 
ning to appear."* 

Again, in the Islands of the South Sea, Captain Cook was as- 
tonished at the populousness of Otaheite and the Society Islands. 
Slavery seems to have been establislied through these Islands, and 
compensated no doubt in part for many of those abominable prac- 
tices which seem to have been prevalent among the natives. 

Again, on turning to Africa, where we find the most abundant 
and complete exemplification of every species of slavery and its 
eflects, and where consequently the philosophy of the subject may 
be most advantageously studied, we find most conclusive proof of 
our assertions. " It desevves particular notice, that the nations in 
this degrading condition (state of slavery) are the most numerous, 
the most powerful, and the most advanced in all the arts and improve- 
ments of life ; that if we except the human sacrifices to which blind 
veneration prompts them, they display even a disposition more 
amiable, manners more dignified and polished, and moral conduct 
more correct, than prevail among the citizens of the small free 
states, who are usually idle, turbulent, quarrelsome and licen- 
tious. "f The Africans too, display in a remarkable degree the 
love of home and fondness for their native scenes — a mark of consi- 
derable advancement in civilization. "Few of them," says the author 
of tlie history of Africa just quoted, " are nomadic and wandering : 
they generally have native seats, to which they cling with strong 
feelings of local attachment. Even the tenants of the Desert, who 
roam widely in quest of commerce and plunder, have their little 
watered valleys or circuit of hills, in which they make their per- 
manent abode."J Can any general facts more strikingly illustrate 
our positions than those which have been just mentioned. 

But there is other and abundant testimony on this subject ; the 

* Robertson's America, vol. 2, p. 101. 

1 See Family Library, No. 16, p. 237, Africa. 

t Family Library, No. 16, p. 228. 



32 

difference between the negroes intiported into the West Indies, still 
farther substantiates all we have said. The negroes from Whida 
or Fida, called in the West Indies Papaws, are the best disposed 
and most docile slaves. The reason seems to be, that the great 
majority of these people are in a state of absohite slavery in Afri- 
ca, and " Bosman," says Brj'an Edwards, "speaks wiih rapture of 
the improved state of their soil, the number of villages, and the 
industry, riches, and obliging manners of the natives."* So that 
slavery seems to be an incalculable advantage to them — both in the 
West Indies and in their own country. 

The Koromantyn or Gold Coast negro, is generally stubborn, 
intractable and unfit for labor at first. His habits in his native 
country are very similar to those of the North American Indian ; 
he must be broke and tamed before he is fit for labor. When they 
are thus tamed however, they become the best laborers in the West 
Indies. " They sometimes," says Bryan Edwards, "take to la- 
bor with great promptitude and alacrity, and have constitutions 
well adapted to it." And he gives as a reason for this, that " ma- 
ny of them have undoubtedly been slaves in Africa." Still this 
country seems yet too barbarous for a regular system of slavery. 
Accordingly, the Koromantyns are described as among the most 
ferocious of the Africans in war, never sparing the life of an ene- 
my except to make him a slave, and that but rarely. Their whole 
education and philosophy consequently seem directed, as is tiie 
case with all savages, to prepare and steel them against the awful 
vicissitudes to which they are ever liable — they have their yell of 
war, and their death songs too. Nothing but slavery can civilize 
such beings, give them habits of industry, and make them cling to 
life for its enjoyments. f 

Strange as it may seem, we have little hesitation in declaring it 
as our opinion, that a much greater number of Indians within the 
limits of the United States would have been saved, had we rigidly 
persevered in enslaving them, than by our present policy. It is 
perhaps the most melancholy fact connected with the history of our 
young republic, that in proportion as the whites have been advan- 
cing, the Indians have been constantly and rapidly decreasing in 
numbers. When our ancestors first settled on this continent, the 
savages were around and among them, and were every where spread 
over this immense territory. Now where are they! Where are the 
warlike tribes that went to battle under their chieftains ? They have 
rapidly disappeared, as the pale faces have advanced. Their num- 
bers have dwindled to insignificance. Within the limits of the ori- 

* Edwards' West Indies, vol. 2, pp. 278, 279. 

■j- This increasing love of life, as an effect of slavery, is exemplified in the following 
anecdote related by Edwards : " A gentleman of Jamaica, visiting a valuable Kora- 
mantyti negro that was sick, and perceiving that he was thoughtful and dejected, en- 
deavored by soothing and encouraging language, to raise his drooping spirits. Massa, 
said the negro, in a tone of self reproach and conscious degeneracy, since me come to 
tohile man's country, me lub (love) life too much." — History of the West Indies, vol. 2, 
p. 275. 



33 

giiial states, llie primitive stock has been reduced to 1G,000. With- 
in the whole United States East of the Mississippi, there are but 
105,000 ; and on the whole of our territory East and West of the 
Mississippi, extending over 24 degrees of lat. and 58 of ion. there 
are but 313,130 ! ! Miserable remnant of the myriads of former 
days ! And yet the government of our country has exiiausted every 
means for their civilization, and the philanthropist has not been idle 
in their behalf. Schools have been erected both public and private; 
missionaries have been sent among them; and all in vain. The 
President of the United States now tells you, that their removal 
farther to the West is necessary — that those who live on our bor- 
ders, in spite of all our efforts to civilize them, are rapidly deterio- 
rating in character, and becoming every day more miserable and 
destitute. We agree with the President in this polic}' — to remove 
them is all we can now do for them. But after all, the expedient 
is temporary, and the relief is short lived. Our population will 
again, and at no distant day, press upon their borders — their game 
will be destroyed — the intoxicating beverage will be furnished to 
them — they will engage in wars, and tlieir total extermination will 
be the inevitable consequence. The handwriting has indeed ap- 
peared on the wall. The mysterious decree of Providence has 
gone forth against the red man — his destiny is fixed, and final de- 
struction is his inevitable fate. Slavery, we assert again, seems to 
be the only means that we know of, under Heaven, by which the 
ferocity of the savage can be conquered, his wandering habits 
eradicated, his slothfulness and improvidence overcome — by which, 
in fine, his nature can be changed. The Spaniards enslaved the 
Indians in Soutii America, and they were the most cruel and re- 
lentless of masters. Still, under their system of cruel and harsh 
discipline, an infinitely larger proportion of the Aborigines were 
saved than with us, and will no doubt, in the lapse of ages, mix 
and harmonize with the Europeans, and be in all respects their 
equals.* 

From their inhuman treatment of the Indians at first, numbers 
died in the process of taming and subjugating ; but in the end, 
their system has proved more humane than ours, and demonstrates 
beyond a doubt, that nothing is so fit as slavery to change the na- 
ture of the savage.f "We observe," says Humboldt, " and the 
observation is consoling to humanity, that not only has the num- 

* Humboldt, in his recapitulation of the population of New Spain, gives us tlie fol- 
lowing table : 

Indigenous or Indians, 2,500,000 

Whites or Spaniards, ... J g'-'^o'e-^' ^^^^'''T. ^ • • • 1,100,000 

^ ' ( Europeans, 70,000 ) i, iuu,uuu 

AfricEin Negroes, 6 100 

Casts of Mixed Blood, 1231 000 

[HumboldV s J^ew Spain, JV". Y. Edition, vol. 2, p. 246. 
Again, the numl^er of Indians in Peru is estimated at 600,000, nearly double of the 
■whole Indian population of the United States. — [Vol. 1, p. 69. 

t We shall soon see that there is not in the annals of history, an instance of such ra- 
pid improvement in civilization, as that undergone by the negro slaves in our country 
since the time they were fu'st brought among us. ' 



34 

ber of Indians in South America and Mexico, been on (lie increase 
for the last century, (he published his work in 1808,) but that the 
whole of the vast region which we designate by the general name 
of New Spain, is much better inhabited at present, thnn it was be- 
fore the arrival of the Europeans."* He gives a very remarkable 
instance of the effects of even unjust slavery on the industry and 
agriculture of the country. He speaks of the Alcaldlas Mayores, 
a sort of provincial magistrates and judges ia Mexico, forcing the 
Indians to purchase cattle of them, and afterwards reducing them 
to slavery for non-payment of the debts thus contracted, and he 
adds, upon the authority of Fray Antonio, Monk of St. Jerome, 
that "the individual happiness of these unfortunate wretches was 
not certainly increased by the sacrifice of their liberty for a horse 
or a mule to work for their master's profit. But yet in the midst 
of this state of things, brought on by abuses, agriculture and indus- 
try vjere seen to increase.'^ f 

We beg our readers to bear in mind, that we are here merely 
discussing the eflects of slavery, and not passing our opinions-upon 
the justice or injustice of its origin. We shall now close our re- 
marks upon this head, by the citation of an instance furnished by 
our own country, of the great advantage of slavery to masters — for 
among savages the benefit seems to extend to both master and 
slave. There is an able article in the 66ih number of the North 
American Review, on the " Removal of the Indians," from the 
pen of Governor Cass, whom we have no hesitation, from the lit- 
tle we have seen of his productions, to pronounce one of the most 
philosophical and elegant writers in this country. In this article, 
after pointing out the true condition of the Indian tribes in the 
neighborhood of the whites, and proving beyond a doubt that they 
are injured instead of benefitted by their juxtaposition, he ad- 
mits that the Cherokees constitute a solitary and but a partial ex- 
ception — that some individuals among them have acquired proper- 
ty,, and with it more enlarged and just notions of the value of our 
institutions. He says that these salutary changes are confined 
principally to the half breeds and their immediate connexions, and 
are not sufiiciently numerous to overturn his reasoning against the 
practicability of civilizing the Indians. Now what are the causes 
of this dawn of civilization among the Cherokees.^ "The causes 
which have led to this state of things," says Governor Cass, "are 
too peculiar ever to produce an extensive result. . . . They have 
been operating for many years, and among the most prominent of 
them, has been the introduction of slaves, by which means, that un- 
conquerable^ aversion to labor, so characteristic of all savage tribes, 
can be indulged."! 

* Humboldt's New Spain, vol. 1, p. 71. f Vol. 1, pp. 146, 147. 

t See North American Reviev/, No. 66, article 3. The Spaniards when they first 
conquered Mexico and Peru, were, as we have already said, the most cruel and relent- 
less of masters. They are now the most humane and kind, and perhaps tlie Portu- 
guese come next, who were equally cruel with the Spaniards d^u-ing the first century 
after their settlement in the new world. 



35 

We hope now we have said enough to convince even the most 
sceptical, of the powerful effects of slavery, in changing the habits 
peculiar to the Indian or savage, b}' converting hitn into the agri- 
culturist, and changing ins slothfulness and aversion to labor into 
industry' and economy, thereby rendering his labor more produc- 
tive, his means of subsistence more abundant and regular, and his 
happiness more secure and constant. We cannot close our remarks 
on the general effects of slavery on the progress of civilization, 
without pointing out its peculiar influence on that portion of the 
human race which the civilized nations of modern times so much 
delight to honor and to cherish — the fair sex. 

{ 3d. hifiuence of Slavery on the condition of the female sex. — The 
bare name of this interestiug iialf of the liuman family, is well cal- 
culated to awaken in the breast of the generous, the feeling of ten- 
derness and kindness. The wrongs and sufferings of meek, quiet, 
forbearing woman, awaken the generous sympathy of every noble 
heart. Man never suffers withoutymurmin-ing, and never relinquisii- 
es his rights without a struggle: It is not always so with woman : 
her physical weakness incapSntates her for the combat : her sexual 
organization, and the part which she takes in bringing forth and 
nurturing the rising generation, render her necessarily domestic in 
her habits, and timid and patient in her sufferings. If man choose 
to exercise his power against woman, she is sure to fall an easy 
prey to his oppression. Hence, we may always consider her pro- 
gressing elevation in society, as a mark of advancing civilization, 
and more partictdarly of the augmentation of disinterested and ge- 
nerous virtue. 1 he lot of women among savages has always been 
found to be painful and degrading. Doctor Robertson says that 
in America their condition " is so peculiarly grievous, and their 
depression so complete, that servitude is a name too mild to des- 
cribe their wretched state. A wife among most tribes is no better 
than a beast of burthen, destined to every office of labor and fa- 
tigue. While the men loiter out the day in sloth, or spend it in 
amusement, the women are condemned to excessive toil. Tasks 
are imposed on them without pity, and services are received with- 
out complacence or gratitude. Every circumstance reminds womgn 
of this mortifying inferiority. They must approach their lords with 
reverence, Tliey must regard liiem as more exalted beings and are 
not permitted to eat in their presence. There are districts in Ame- 
rica where this dominion is so grievous, and so sensibly felt, that 
some women in a wild emotion of maternal tenderness, have des- 
troyed their female children in their infancy, in order to deliver 
them from that intolerable bondage to which they knew they were 
doomed."* 

This harrowing description of woman's servitude and sufferings 
among the Aborigenes of America, is applicable to all savage na- 
tions. In the Islands of Andaman, in Van Diemen's Land, in New 

* Robertson's America, vo!. 1, p. 176. 



36 

Zealand* and New Holland, the lot of woman is the same. The 
females carry on their heads and bodies, the traces of the superio- 
rity of the males. Mr. Collins says of the women of N. S. Wales, 
'' Their condition is so wretched, that I have often, on seeing a fe- 
male child borne on its mother's shoulders, anticipated the miseries 
to which it was born, and tliouglit it would be mercy to destroy it." 
And thus is it, that the most important of all connexions, the mar- 
riage tie, is perverted to the production of the degradation and mi- 
sery of the one sex, and the arrogant assumption and unfeeling cru- 
elty of the other. But the evil stops not with the sufferings of wo- 
man — her prolificness is in a measure destroyed." Unaided by the 
male in the rearing of her children, and being forced to bear them 
on her shoulders when the huntsmen are roaming through the forest, 
many of their oflspring must die, from the vicissitudes to which they 
are subjected at so tender an age. Moreover " among wandering 
tribes," says Dr. Robertson, " the mother cannot attempt to rear 
a second child until the first has attained such a degree of vigour 
as to be in some measure independent of her care." . . . "When 
twins are born one of them is commonly abandoned, because the 
mother is not equal to the task of rearing both. When a mother 
dies while she is nursing a child, all hope of preserving its life fails, 
and it is buried together with her in the same grave. "f 

It is not necessary that we should continue farther this shocking 
picture, but let us proceed at once to inquire if the institution of 
slavery is not calculated to relieve the suflerings and wrongs of in- 
jured woman, and elevate her in the scale of existence.^ Slavery we 
have just seen changes the hunting into the shepherd and agricul- 
tural states — gives rise to augmented productions, and consequently 
furnishes more abundant supplies for man : the labor of the slave 
thus becomes a substitute for that of the woman : man no longer 
wanders through the forest in quest of gain ; and woman, conse- 
quently, is relieved from following on his track, under the enerva- 
ting and harassing burthen of her children: She is now surround- 
ed by her domestics, and the abundance of their labor liglitens the 
toil and hardships of the whole family; she ceases to be a mere 
'^Jteasi of burthen'^ — becomes the cheering and animating centre of 
the family circle — time is afforded for reflection and the cultivation 
of all those mild and fascinating virtues, which throvv a charm and 
delight around our homes and firesides, and calm and tranquillize 
the harsher tempers and more restless propensities of the male: 
Man too, relieved from that endless disquietude about subsistence 
for the morrow — relieved of the toil of wandering over the forest — 
more amply provided for by the productions of the soil — finds his 
habits changed, his temper moderated, his kindness and benevolence 
increased; he loses that savage and brutal feeling which he had be- 

* In New ^lealand agriculture has worked a most wonderful change in the lot of wo- 
man. She is now more respected and loved. — [See Librm-y of Entertaining Knowledge, 
vol. 5, J^'ew Zealanders. 

] Robertson's America, vol. 1, p. 177. 



37 

fore indulged towards all his unfortunate dependents; and conse- 
quently even the slave, in the agricultural, is happier than the free 
man in the hunting state. 

In the very first remove from the most savage state, we behold 
the marked effects of slavery on the condition of woman — we find 
her at once elevated, clothed with all her charms, njingling with 
and directing the society to which she belongs, no longer the slave, 
but the equal and the idol of man. The Greeks and Trojans, at 
the siege of Troy, were in this state, and some ot the most inter- 
esting and beautiful passages in the Iliad relate to scenes of social 
intercourse and conjugal aflection, where woman, unawed and in all 
the pride of conscious equality, bears a most conspicuous part. — 
Thus, Helen and Andromache, are frequently represented as ap- 
pearing in company with the Trojan chiefs, and mingling freely in 
conversation witii lliem. Attended only by one or two maid ser- 
vants, ihey walk through the streets of Troy, as business or fancy 
directs : even the prudent Penelope, persecuted as she is by her 
suitors, does not scruple occasionally to appear among them; and 
scarcely more reserve seems to be imposed on virgins than married 
women. Mitford, has well observed, that "Homer's elegant eulo- 
glums and Hesiod's severe sarcasm, equally prove women to have 
been in their days important members of society. The character 
of Penelope in the Odyssee, is the completest panegyric on the sex 
that ever was composed; and no language can give a more elegant 
or more highly coloured picture of conjugal afl'ection, than is dis- 
pla3'ed in the conversations of Hector and Andromache, in the 6th 
book of the Iliad."* 

The Teutonic races who inhabited the mountains and fastnesses 
of Germany were similarly situated to the Greeks, and even before 
they left their homes to move down upon the Roman Empire, they 
were no more distinguished by their deeds in arms, than for devo- 
tion and attention to the weaker sex: So much were they character- 
ized by this elevation of the female sex, that Gilbert Stuart does not 
hesitate to trace the institution of chivalry, whose origin lias never 
yet been satisfactorily illustrated, to the German manners. f 

Again — if we descend to modern times, we see much the largest 
portion of Africa existing in this second stage of civilization, and 
consequently we find woman in an infinitely better condition, than 
we any where find her among the Aborigines on the American con- 
tinent. And thus is it a njost, singular and curious fact, that woman, 
whose sympathies are ever alive to the distresses of others, whose 
heart is filled with benevolence and philanthropy, and whose fine 
feelings unchecked by considerations of interest or cal-culations of 
remote consequences, have ever prompted to embrace with eager- 
ness even the wildest and most destructive schemes of emancipa- 
tion, has been in a most peculiar and eminent degree indebted to 

*See M it ford's Greece, vol. 1, pp. 166, 167, Boston Edilioii. 
tSee Stuart's View of Society, particularly book 1, chap. 3, sec, 4 and 5. 
6 



38 

slavery for that very elevation in society which first raised her to an 
equality with man. We will not stop here to investigate the ad- 
vantages resulting from the ameliorated condition of woman: her 
immense influence on the destiny of our race is acknowledged by 
all: upon her must ever devolve in a peculiar degree the duty of 
rearing into manhood a creature in its infancy, the frailest and fee- 
blest which heaven has made — of forming the plastic mind — of train- 
ing the ignorance and imbecihty of infancy, into virtue and eflici- 
enc}'. "There is perhaps no moral power the magnitude of which 
swells so far beyond the grasp of calculation as the influence of the 
female character on the virtues and happiness of mankind: it is so 
searching, so versatile, so multifarious and so universal: it turns 
on us like the eye of a beautiful portrait wherever we take our po- 
sition : it bears upon us in such an infinite variety of points, on our 
instincts, our passions, our vanity, our tastes and our necessities; 
above all on the first impressions of education and the associations 
of infancy." The 7'ole which woman should act in the great drama 
of life is truly an important and an indispensable one — it must and 
will be acted, and that too, either for our weal or woe: All must 
wish then that she should be guided by virtue, intelligence and the 
purest afl'ection — which can only be secured by elevating, honour- 
ing and loving her in whose career we feel so deep an interest. 

We have thus traced out the origin and progress of slavery, and 
pointed out its ellects in promoting the civilization of mankind. We 
should next proceed to an investigation of those causes of a gene- 
ral character which have a tendency in the progress of society gra- 
dually to remove and extinguish slavery, but these we shall have 
such frequent ojDportunities of noticing in the sequel, while discus- 
sing various schemes of abolition that have been proposed, that we 
have determined to omit their separate consideration. 

We shall now proceed to inquire into the origin of slavery in 
the United States. 

It is well known to all at all conversant with the history of our 
country, that negro slavery in the United States, the West India 
Islands and South America, was originally derived from the Afri- 
can slave trade, by which the African negro was torn from his 
home, and transferred to the Western hemisphere, to live out his 
days in bondage ; we shall briefly advert — First, to the origin and 
progress of this trade — Secondly, to its eflects on Africa ; and last- 
ly, to the consideration of the part which the United States have 
taken in this traffic, anc! the share of responsibility which must 
be laid at their door. 

1st. Origin and Progress of the Afi'ican Slave Trade. — This 
trade, which seems so shocking to the feelings of mankind, dates its 
origin as far back as to the year 1442: Antony Gonzales, a Por- 
tuguese mariner, while exploring the coast of Africa in 1440, 
seized some Moors near Caj)e Bojador, and was subsequently forc- 
ed by his king, the celebrated Prince Henry of Portugal, to carry 
them back to Africa : he carried them to Rio del Oro, and receiv- 



39 

ed from the Moors in exchange, ten Hacks and a quantity of 
gold dust, with which he returned to Lisbon, and this, wliich oc- 
curred in 1442, was the simple beginning of tliat extensive trade 
in human flesh, which has given so singular an aspect to the tex- 
ture of our population, and which has and will continue to influ- 
ence the character and destiny of the greatest portion of the inha- 
bitants of the two Americas." 

" The success of Gonzales, not only awakehfd the admiration, 
but stimulated the avarice of his countrymen; who, in the course 
of a iew succeeding years, fitted out no less than thirty-seven ships, 
in the pursuit of the same gainful traffic." "So early as the year 
1502, the Spaniards began to employ a few negroes in the mines 
of Hispaniola, and in the year 1517 the Emperor, Charles the V., 
granted a patent to certain persons for the exclusive supply of 4000 
negroes annually, to the Islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica and 
Puerto Rico."* 

African slaves were first imported into this country in iGiO, 
more than a century after their introduction in the West Indies. — 
It seems, that in the year 1620, the trade to Virginia was thrown 
open to all nations, and a Dutch vessel availing itself of the com- 
/mercial liberty which prevailed, brought into James River twenty 
[Africans, who were immediately purchased as slaves; " and as that 
hardy race," says Robertson, "was found more capable of endur- 
ing fatigue under a sultry climate than Europeans, their number 
has been increased by continual importations. "t — Slavery v^as thus 
introduced into the new world, and its fertile soil and extensive 
territory, its sparse population and warm climate so congenial to 
the African constitution, soon gave a powerful stimulus to the trade, 
and drew towards it the mercantile enterprise of every commercial 
nation of Europe. England being the most commercial of Euro- 
pean nations, naturally engrossed a large portion of the trade; 
Bryan Edwards says, that from the year 1680 to 1786, there were 
imported into the British possessions alone 2,130,000 slaves — ma- 
king an average annual importation of more than 20,000. 

The annual importation into the two Americas from all quar- 
ters, has frequently transcended 100,000! But our limits will not 
allow us to enter more fully into this subject; and therefore, we 
must content ourselves by calling the attention of the reader to 
the 9th section of Walsli's Appeal on the subject of negro slavery 
and the slave trade, in which he has brought together all the infor- 
mation upon this subject up to the time at which he wrote (1819). 
We will now proceed to consider 2nd — The effects of the Slave 
Trade on the condition of Africa— find first, will briefly advert to the 
supposed advantages. It is well known that almost the whole of 
Africa exists in a barbarous state — only one or two removes above 
the Indian of America. At the commencement of the slave trade, 

* See Bryant Edwards' West Indies, vol. 2d, page 23S, and the sequel. 
tSee upon this subject 2d chapter of the first volume of Marshall's Life of Wash- 
ington and Robertson's Virsrinia. 



40 

slavery as we have already seen, was established throughout Africa, 
and h;id led on to great mitigation of the cruel practices of war ; — 
liiit still in consequence of the limited demand for slaves under 
ihrir very rude system of agriculture, the prisoner of war was 
frequently put to death. 

So soon however as the slave trade was established, great care 
was taken in the preservation of the lives of prisoners, in conse- 
quence of the great demand for them occasioned by the slave traf- 
fic, so that although an extension has been given to the system of 
slavery, many lives are supposed to have been saved by it. 

Again, it has been contended, that the slave trade by giving a 
value to the African negro which would not otherwise have been 
attaclied to him, lias produced much more mildness and kindness, in 
the treatment of slaves in Africa, that the utmost care is now taken 
in the rearing of children, and consequently that although Africa 
has lost many of her inhabitants from this cause, yet a stimulus has 
thereby been given to population, which has in some measure 
made up the loss. 

" Africa," says Malthus, " has been at all times the principal 
mart of slaves. The drains of its population in this way have been 
great and constant, particularly since their introduction into the 
European colonies; but perhaps, as Doctor Franklin observes, it 
would be difficult to find the gap that has been made by a Itundred 
years exportation of negroes, which has blackened half America."* 
Lastly, it has been urged and with great apparent justness, that 
the slave trade has contributed greatly to the civilization of a large 
portion of the African population, — that by transportation to the 
Western world, they have been placed in contact witb-the civilized 
white, and have been greatly benefitted by the change ; that the 
system of slavery throughout our continent and the Islands, is 
much less cruel than in Africa, — that there no where prevails in 
America, the horrid practice of sacrificing the slave on the death 
of his master, in order that he may be well attended in another 
world — a practice which all travellers in Africa assert to be extreme- 
ly common in many nations; — and finally', that the climate of our 
temperate and torrid zones, is much more suitable to the African 
constitution, than even their own climate ; and consequently, that 
the physical condition of the race has greatly improved by the 
transplantation. 

There is certainly much truth in the above assertions ; but still 
we cannot agree that the advantages to Africa from the slave trade, 
have preponderated over the disadvantages. Although wars have 
been made more mild by the trade, yet they have been made much 
more frequent : an additional and powerful motive for strife has 
been furnished. Countries have been overrun, and cities pillaged, 
mainly with a view of procuring slaves for the slave dealer. Brough- 
am likens the operation of the slave trade in this respect, to the eflect 

* See Malthus on Population, vol. 1, page 179, Georgetown Edition. 



41 

which the difterent menageries in the world and the consequent de- 
mand for wild beasts, have produced on the inferior animals of 
Africa. They are now taken alive, instead of being killed as for- 
merly ; but they are certainly more hunted and more harassed than 
if no foreign demand existed for them. The unsettled state of 
Africa, caused by the slave trade, is most undoubtedly unfavorable 
to the progress of civilization in that extensive region. In proof 
of the fatal effects of the slave trade on the peace, order and civi- 
lization of Africa, Mr. Wilberforce asserted, and his assertion is 
upheld by the statements of all travellers who have penetrated far 
into the interior, that while in every region the sea coast and the 
banks of navigable rivers, those districts which from their situation 
had most intercourse with civilized nations, were found to be most 
civilized and cultivated, the effects of the slave trade had been such 
in Africa, that those parts of the coast which had been the seats of 
the longest and closest intercourse with European nations in carry- 
ing on a flourishing slave trade, were far inferior in civilization and 
knowledge to many tracts of the interior country, where the face 
of the white man had never been seen ; and thus has the slave trade 
been able to reverse the ordinary effects of Christianity and Maho- 
medanism, and to cause the latter to be the instructer and enlight- 
ener of mankind, while the former left them under the undisturbed 
or rather increased influence of all their native superstitions.* 

Again; the condition of the negro during what is called the mid- 
dle passage, is allowed by all to be wretched in the extreme. The 
slave traders are too often tempted to take on board more slaves 
than can be conveniently carried, they are then stored away in much 
too narrow space, and left to all the horrors and privations incident 
to a voyage through tropical seas. The Edinburgh Review asserts, 
that about seventeen in a hundred died generally during the pas- 
sage, and about thirty-three afterwards in the seasoning — making 
the loss of the negroes exported, rise to the frightful amount of 50 
per cent. It has been further asserted, that the treatment of the 
negroes at'ter importation has been generally so cruel, as that the 
population has not by its procreative energies kept up its numbers 
in any of the West-India Islands — that it has been cheaper for the 
West Indian to work out his negroes, and trust to the slave trade 
for a supply, than to raise them in the Islands where provisions are 
so dear. We believe the accounts of the ill treatment of slaves in 
the West-Indies have been greatly exaggerated, and have no doubt 
that their condition has generally been better than in Africa; but 
still it is true that breeding has been discouraged generally where 
the slave trade was in full operation ; and children not being allowed 
full attention from the mother, have too frequently died from the 
want of care. A,nd this is most probably a principal reason of the 

* It is proper to state here, that Parke ascribes the superior condition of the interior 
districts of Africa, principally to a more healthy climate. 



42 

slow increase of the slaves in the West-Inrlies by procreation.* 
Upon the whole tlien, we must come to the conclusion that the 
slave trade has been disadvantageous to Africa, has caused a vio- 
lation of the principles of humanity, and given rise to much suffer- 
ing and to considerable destruction of human life.f Judging by 
its effects, we must condemn it, and consequently agree that sla- 
very in our hemisphere was based upon injustice in the first in- 
stance. 

But we believe that there are man}' circumstances of an allevia- 
ting character, which form at least a strong apology for the slave 
trade; — thus: slavery exists throughout the whole of Africa; the 
slave must necessarily' be looked upon in tlie light of property, and 
subject to bargain, sale and removal, as all kinds of moveable pro- 
perty are. The Adscripti GlehcE, or slaves attached to the soil, and 
not suffered to be removed, fare the worst. When they multiply 
too greatly for the products of the soil on which they are situated, 
their subsistence is scanty and their condition is miserable. When 
not in proportion to the extent of the soil, then they are sure to be 
overworked as there is a deficiency of labor. It is certainly best 
therefore if slavery exists at all, that buying and selling should be 
allowed, and upon this principle the middle 'passage certainly con- 
stitutes the greatest objection to the slave trade, when those alone 
are imported who were slaves in Africa. 

But again; it is extremely difficult in all questions of morality, 
to say how far ignorance, conscientious opinions and concomitant 
circumstances, may atone for acts extremely hurtful and improper 
in themselves; we all agree that these produce great modifications. 
The bigot who burns his religious enemy at the stake, and consci- 
entiously believes he has done his God a service, and the North 
American Indian who torments with every refinement of cruelty 
the prisoner who has unfortunately fallen into his hands, and be- 
lieves that the Great Spirit applauds him, and that the blood of his 
fathers calls for it, surely do not commit the same amount of sin as 
the perfectly' enlightened statesman, who should do the same things 
from policy, knowing them to be wrong. In like manner, the slave 
trade at its origin, can lay claim to the same sort of apology, from 
the condition of the world when it arose, and the peculiar circum- 
stances which generated it. Slavery was then common throughout 
almost every country of Europe. 

Indeed the slaves under the appellation of main mortatdes^ in 



• * Another cause of the difficulty of keeping up the slave population ofthe West In- 
dies, is the great disproportion between the sexes among those imported, — the males be- 
ing greatly more numerous than the females. 

t We do not by any means wish to be understood as contending that negro slavery 
in our hemisphere, has lessened the number of negroes throughout the world. On the 
contrary, there is nothing more true, than that the number has gi-eatly increased by it. 
We only allude to the destruction of life in the Middle Passage, and the Seasoning. 

■ J It is a singular fact, that the slaves belonging to the Church, were the last liberated — 
a striking illustration of the feeble effects of Religion and Philanthropy, when arrayed 
against interest. 



43 

France, were never liberated until the revolution in 1789. The pub- 
lic law of Europe too, justified the killing or enslaving of the pri- 
soner at the option of the captor. Under these circumstances, we 
are not to wonder that the slave trade, so far from exciting the hor- 
rors of mankind, as now, actually commanded the admiration of 
Europe. Gonzales, we have just seen, during the reign of the 
celebrated Prince Henry, in 1442, brought the first negro slaves 
into Lisbon, and the deed excited the admiration of all; again three 
years afterwards, Dinis Fernandez, a citizen of Lisbon and an Es- 
quire to the King Don John, captured four negroes on the coast of 
Africa and brought tiiem into Lisbon; and the Portuguese historian 
Barras, "eulogizes Dinis," says Walsh, in his notices of Brazil, 
"that he did not stop at the lime, to make (bravs into the country,'' 
and capture more slaves on his own account, but brought those he 
had caught back to iiis master, who was mlghrily pleaxed, not only 
with the discoveries he had made but with the people he had carried 
with him, which had not been delivered from the hands of the Moors 
like the other negroes, which had up to tiiat time come into the 
kingdom, but had been caught on their own soil." 

The famous Bartholomew de las Casas, bishop of Chiapi, who 
is said to have been the first to recommend the importation of Afri- 
cans into the New World, was a man of the mildest and most phi- 
lanthropic temper, yet he never doubted at all the right to enslave 
Africans, thouiih he was the zealous advocate and protector of liie 
Indian. "While he contended," says Robertson, "for the liberty 
of people born in one quarter of the globe, he labored to enslave 
the inhabitants of another region ; and in the warmth of his zeal to 
save the Americans from the yoke, pronounced it lo be lawful and 
expedient to impose one still heavier upon the Africans."* 

We have already seen that Charles the 5th, granted a commission 
to a company to supply his American possessions with 4000 slaves 
per annum. Ferdinand and Isabella likewise had permitted the 
trade before him. 

John Hawkins was the first Englishman who embarked in the 
trade, and he seems b^' his daring and enterprise in the business to 
have greatly pleased liis sovereign Queen Eiizabeth, who so far 
from disgracing iiim conferred on him the honors of knighthood, 
and made him treasurer of the navy.t Elizabeth, James L, 
Charles L and H., were all in the habit of chartering companies 
to carry on the trade. No scruples of conscience seem ever to 
have disturbed the quiet of these royal personages or of the agents 
whom they employed. The last Charter Company was called the 
Royal African Company, and had ainong the subscribers the King 
(Charles H.), the Duke of York, his brother, and many other per- 
sons of high rank and quality. | In fact women, the most virtuous 
and humane, were often subscribers to this kind of stock, and seem 

* Robertson's America. 

t See Edward's West Indies, vol. 2, p. 242. 

i Edward's West Indies, vol. 2, pp. 247 — 8. 



44 

never to have reflected upon the injustice and iniquity of the traffic, 
which has so long scandalized civilized Europe. It would indeed be 
a most difficult question in casuistry, to determine the amount of sin 
and wickedness committed by the various governments of Europe, 
in sanctioning a trade which the condition of Europe, Africa and 
America and all ihe habits and practices of the day seemed so com- 
pletely to justify. 

We shall now proceed, 3rdly, to the consideration of the share of 
responsibility which attaches to the United States in the commission 
of the original sin by which slavery was first introduced into this 
country. — The colonies, being under the control and guidance of 
the nujiher countr}', were of course responsible for no commercial 
arts*nd regulations in whit h they ha-i no share whatever. The 
slave trade on the part ol Great Britain, commenced during the 
reign oT Elizabeth, wlio personally took a share in it. The colo- 
nies did not then exist. It was encouraged in the successive reigns 
of C^harles I. and II., and James II.; and William the 111., outdid 
them all: — With Lord Somers for his minister, he declared the 
slave trade to he highly beneficial to the nation. The colonies all 
this time took no share in it themselves, merely purchasing what the 
British merchants brought them, and doing therein what the British 
government invited then) to do. by every nieans in their power. 
And now let us see, who it was, that first marked it wilh disappro- 
bation, and sought to confine it within narrower bounds. The 
colonies began in 1760. South Carolina, a British colony, pass- 
ed an act to prohibit further importation, — but Great Britain re- 
jected this act with indignation, and declared that the slave trade 
was beneficial and. necessary to the mother coxmtry. The governors 
of the colonies had positive orders to sanction no law enacted 
against the slave trade. In Jaujaica, in the year 1765, an atteu)pt 
was made to abolish the trade to that Island. The governor de- 
clared that his instructions would never allow him to sign the bill. 
It was tried again in the same Island in 1774, but Great Britain 
by the Earl of Dartmouth, president of the board, answered — 
*' We cannot allow the colonics to check or discourage in any degree 
a trojfic so beneficial to the nation.^'' The above historical account 
we have taken from a British writer (Barhain's Observations on 
the Abolition of Negro SJavery). 

Among all the colonies, none seem to have been more eager and 
more pressing for the abolition of the slave trade than Virginia — in 
which Stale the citizens, wonderful to relate, seem now more re- 
morseful and conscience stricken than any where else in the whole 
Southern country. Judge Tucker, in his Notes on Blackstone's 
Commentaries, has collected a list of no less than twenty-three acts 
imposing duties on slaves, which occur in the compilations of Vir- 
ginia laws. The first, bears date as far back as 1699; and the 
real design of all of them, was not revenue, but the repression of 
the importation. In 1772, most of the duties previously imposed, 
were re-enacted, and the Assembly transmitted at the same time a 



45 

petition to the throne, which, as Mr. Walsh most jusil}' observes, 
speaks almost all that could be desired, for the confusion of our 
slaiidnrers. The following are extracts : " We are encouraged to 
look up to the throne and implore your majesty's pateriKil assis- 
tance in averting a calamity of a most alarming nature." " 'IMie 
importation of slaves into the colonics from the coast of Africa, 
hath long been considered a trade o? great inhumnnili/, and under 
its present encouragement, we have too much r<^ason to fear, will 
endanger the very existence of your majesty's American Domini- 
ons." 

"Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly be- 
seech your majesty to remove all those restraints on your majesfy''s 
governors of this colony, which iniiibit their assenting to sucli laws 
as might check so very pernicious a commerce." The petition of 
course was unavailing. The very first Assembly which met in 
Virginia, after the adoption of her constitution, prohibited the traf- 
fic; and the ^'inhvman use of the royal negative" against the action 
of the colony upon this subject, is enumerated in tlie first clause 
of the first Virginia Constitution, as a reason of the separation 
from the mother country. 

The action of the United States government likewise upt)n the 
slave trade, seems to have been as speedy and efficient as could 
possibly have been expected from a government necessarily placed 
under great restraint and limitation. 

Not being able to enter into details, we quote with great plea- 
sure the following remark from Mr. Walsh, who with most inde- 
fatigable zeal and industry, lias collected all the important infor- 
mation on the subject of the slave trade, and furnished the world 
with a complete and triumphant vindication of the United States, 
against the taunts and illiberal insinuations of British writers. — 
"It is seen," says Mr. Walsh, " by the foregoing abstract, that Fe- 
deral America interdicted the trade from her ports, thirteen years 
before Great Britain; that she made it punishable as a crime seven 
years before; that she fixed four years sooner the period for non- 
importation — which peiiod was earlier than that determined up- 
on by Great Britain for her colonies. We ought not to overlook 
the circumstance, tliat these measures were taken by a Legislature 
composed in considerable part of the representatives of slave hold- 
ing states; slave holders themselves, in whom of course according 
to the Edinburgh Review "conscience had suspended its func- 
tions" and "justice, gentleness and pity were extinguished." — In 
truth, the representatives from our Southern States have been fore- 
most in testijying their abhorrence of the traffic.* Are we not then 
fully justifiefl, from a historical review of the part which the colo- 
nists took, before and after their independence, in relation to the 
slave trade, in asserting that slavery was forced upon them, and 
the slave trade continued contrary to their wishes. If ever nation 

♦ See Walsh's Appeal 2nd Edition, page 323. 
7 



46 

stood justified before Heaven, in regard to an evil, which had be- 
come interwoven witli her social system, is not that country ours ? 
Are not our hands unpolluted with the original sin, and did we not 
wash them clean of tlie contagion the moment our independent ex- 
istence v/as established? Where is the stain that rests upon our es- 
cutcheon? There is none ! United America has done her duty, 
and Virginia has the honor of taking the lead in the abolition of 
the slave trade, whose example has been so tardily aiftl reluctantly 
followed by the civilized nations of Europe. Virginia, therefore, 
especially, has nothing to reproach herself with — " the still small 
voice of conscience" can never disturb her quiet. She truly stands 
upon ti)is subject like the Chevalier Bayard — ^' sans jjeur et sails 
reproche.^^ 

We liave now finished the first principal division of our subject — 
in which we have treated, we hope satisfactorily, of the origin of 
slavery in ancient and modern times, and have closed with a con- 
sideration of the slave trade, by which slavery has been introduced 
into the United States. We hope that this preliminary discus- 
sion will not be considered inappropriate to our main subject. — 
W^e have considered it indispensably necessary, to point out the 
true sources of slavery and the principles upon which it rests, in 
order that we might appreciate fully the value of tiiose arguments 
based upon the principles that " all nien are born equal" — that 
"slavery in the abstract is wrong," that " the slave has a natural 
right to regain his liberty," &ic. &-c. — all of which doctrines were 
most pompously and ostentatiously put forth by some of the abo- 
litionists in the Virginia Legislature. No set of legislators ever 
have, or ever can legislate upon purely abstract principles, entirely 
independent of circumstances, without the ruin of the body politic 
which should have the misfortune to be under the guidance of 
such quackery. Well and philosophically has Burke remarked, 
that circumstances give in reality to ever}^ political principle its 
distinguishing colour and discriminating effect. The circumstan- 
ces are what render every political scheme beneficial or noxious 
to mankind, and we cannot stand forward and give praise or blame 
to any thing which relates to human actions and human concerns, 
on a simple view of the object, as it stands stript of every relation 
in all the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction. The 
historical view which we have given of ihe origin and progress of 
slavery, shews most conclusively that something else is requisite to 
convert slaver^' into freedom, than the mere enunciation of abstract 
truths, divested of all adventitious circumstances and relations. — 
We shall now then proceed to the second great division of our 
subject, and inquire seriously and. fairly, whether there be any 
means by which we may get rid of slavery. 



47 

II. Plans for the AholUion of JYe.gro Slavery. 

Under this head we will examine, first, those schemes which 
propose abolition and deportation, and secondlj^ those which con- 
template emancipation without deportation. 

1st. Emancipation and Deportation. — In the late Virginia Le- 
gislature, where the subject of slavery underwent the most tho- 
rough discussion, all seemed to be perfectly agreed in the necessity ^ 
of removal in case of emancipation. Several members from the 
lower counties, which are deeply interested in this question, seem- 
ed to be sanguine in their anticipations of the fi:ial success of 
sont& project of emancipation and deportation to Africa, the ori- 
ginal home of the negro. "Let us translate them," said one of 
the most respected and able members of the Legislature, (Gen. 
Broadnax,) "to those realms from which, in evil times, under in- 
auspicious influences, their fathers were unfortunately abducted. — 
Mr. Speaker, the idea of restoring these people to the region in 
which nature had planted thenv, and to whose climate she had fit- 
ted their constitutions — the idea of benefitting not oul}' our condi- 
tion and their conditio#by the removal, but making them the 
means of carrying back to a great continent, lost in the profound- 
est depths of savage barbarity, unconscious of the existence 
even of the God who created them, not only the arts and comforts 
and muhiplied advnntagesof civilized life, but what is ofmore value 
t1ian all, a knowledge of true religion — intelligence of a Redeem- 
er — is one of the grandest and noblest, one of the most expan- 
sive and glorious ideas which ever entered into the imagination of 
man. The conception, whether to the philosopher, the statesman, 
the philanthropist, or the Christian, of rearing up a colony which 
is to be the nucleus arouid which future emigration will concenter, 
and open all Africa to civilization and commerce, and science and 
arts and religion — when Ethiopia shall stretch out i\er hands, in- 
deed, is one which warms the heart with delight." (Speech of Gen. 
Broadnax of Dinwiddle, pp. 36 and 37.) We fear tiiat this splen- 
did vision, the creation of a brilliant imagination, influenced by 
the pure feelings of a philanthropic and generous heart, is destined 
to vanish at the severe touch of analysis. . Fortunately for reastm 
and common sense, all these projects of deportation may be sub- 
jected to the most rigid and accurate calculations, which are amply 
suflicient to dispel all doidit, even in the minds of the most san- 
guine, as to their practicability. 

We take it for granted that the right of the owner to his slave is 
to be respected, and consequently that he is not required to eman- 
cipate him, unless his full value is paid by the state. Let us then, 
keeping this in view, proceed to the very simple calculation of the 
expense of emancipation and deportation in Virginia. The slaves, 
by the last census (1830) amounted within a small fraction to 
470,000; the average value of each one of tliese is $200; con- 
sequently the whole aggregate value of the slave population of 



, 48 

Virginia in 1830, was ^94.000,000, and allowing for the increase 
since, we cannot err far in putting the present value at $ 100,- 
000,000. The assessed value of ail the houses and lands in the 
state amounts to $200,000,000, and these constitute the material 
items in the weahli of llie state, the whole personal property be- 
sides bearing but a verj' snjall proportion to the value of slaves, 
lands, and houses. Now, do not these very simple statistics 
speak volumes upon this subject.'' It is gravely recommended lo 
the state of Virginia to give up a species of property which con- 
stitutes nearly one-third of the wealth of the whole state, and al- 
most one-half of that of Lower Virginia, and with the remaining 
two-thirds to encounter the additional enormous expense of trans- 
portation and colonization on the coast of Africa. But the loss of 
$ 100,000,000 of property is scarcely the half of what Virginia 
would lose, if the immutable laws of nature could suffer (as fortu- 
nately they cannot) this tremendous scheme of colonization to be 
carried into full effect. Is it not population which makes our lands 
and houses valuable? Why are lots in Paris and London worth 
more than the silver dollaVs which it might take to cover them.'* 
Wiiy are lands of equal fertility in Englanlilfcind France worth more 
than those of our Northern States, and those again worth more 
than S()uthern soils, and those in turn worth more than the soils 
of tlie distant West.'' It is the presence or aljsence of population 
which alone can explain the fact. It is in truth the slave labor in 
Virginia which gives value to her soil and her habitations — take 
away this and you pull down the atlas that upholds the wiiole sys- 
stem — eject from the state the whole slave population, and we 
risk nothing in the prediction, that on the day in which it shall be 
accomplished, the worn soils of Virginia will not bear the paltry 
price of the government lands in the West, and the Old Dominion 
will be a " waste howling wilderness," — " the grass siiall be seen 
growing in the streets, and the foxes peeping from their holes." 
But the favourers of this scheme say the}' do not contend for the 
sudden emancipation and deportation of the whole black popula- 
tion ; — they would send off only the increase, and thereby keep 
down the population lo its present arnount, while the whites increas- 
ing at their psual rate would finally become relatively so numer()us 
as to render the presence of the blacks among us for ever after- 
wards entirely harmless. This scheme, wliich at first to the unre- 
flecting seems plausible, and much less wild than the project of 
sending off the whole, is nevertheless inipracticable and visionary, 
as we think a few remarks will prove. It is computed that the an- 
nual increase of the slaves and free coloiu'ed population of Virginia 
is about six thousand. Let us first, then, make a calculation of 
the expense of purchase and transportation. At $200 each, the six 
thousand will amount in value to $ 1,200,000. Ai $30 each, for 
transportation, which we shall soon see is too little, we have the 
whole expense of purchase and transportation $1,380,000, an ex- 
pense to be annually incurred by Virginia to keep down her black 



49 

population to its present amount. And let us ask, is there any one 

wlio can sv-riously arcane that Virginia can incur such an annual ex- 
pense as this for the next twenty-five or fifty years, nntil the whites 
have multiplier! so greatly upon the blacks, as in the opinion of the 
alarmists for ever to rpiiet the fears of the community? Vain and 
delusive hope, if any were ever wild enough to entertain it ! Poor old 
Virginia, the leader of the poverty stricken team, which have been 
for years so heavily dragging along under the intolerable burthen 
of the Federal governnieut, must inevitably be crushed whenever 
this new weight is imposed on her, in comparison with whicli fede- 
ral exactions are light and mild. We should as soon expect the 
Chamois, the hardy rover over Alpine regions, by his unassisted 
strength to hurl down the snowy mantle which for ages has cloth- 
ed the lofty summit of Mont Blanc, as that Virginia will be ever 
able by, her own resources to purchase and colonize on the coast 
of Africa six thousand slaves Cov any number of years in succession. 
But this does not develope to its full extent the monstrous absur- 
dity of this scheme. There is a view of it yet to be taken, which 
seems not to have struck very forcibly any of the speakers in the 
Virginia Legislntnre, but which appears to us of itself perfectly 
conclusive against this whole project. We have made some efforts 
to obtain something like an accurate account of the number of ne- 
groes every vear carried out of Virginia to the south and south- 
west. We ha\%notbeen enabled to succeed completely; but from 
all the infi>riiiali<in we can obtain, we have no hesitation in saying, 
that upwards of six tiiousand are yearly exported to other states. 
Virgin;a is in fact a negro raising state for other states; she pro- 
duces euouuh for her own supply and six thousand for sale. Now, 
su|)pose the government of Virginia enters the slave market, re- 
solved to purchase six thousand for' emancipation and deportation, 
is it not evident that it must overbid the southern seeker, and thus 
take the very slaves who would have gone to the south? The very 
first operation then of this scheme, provided slaves be treated as 
property, is to arrest the current which lias been hitherto flowing 
to the south, and to accumulate the evil in thtj state. As sure as 
the moon in her transit over the meridian arrests the current which 
is gliding to the ocean, so sure will the action of the Virginia gov- 
ernment, in an attempt to emancipate and send ofl' GOOO slaves, , 
stop those who are annually going out of the state; and when 
6000 are sent off in any one year, (which we never expect to see) 
it will be found on investigation that they are those who would 
have been sent out of the state by the operation of our slave trade, 
and to (he utter astonishment and confusion of our abolitionists, 
the black popidation will be found advancing with its usual rapid- 
ity — the only operation of the scheme being to substitute our gov- 
ernment, alias ourselves, as purchasers, instead of the planters of 
the south. This is a view which every legislator in the state 
should take. He should beware lest in his zeal for action, this ef- 
flux, which is now so salutary to the state, and such an abundant 



50 

source of wealth, be suddenly dried up, and all the evils of slavery 
be increased instead of diminished. If p^overnment really could 
enter with capital and zeal enough into the boundless project, we 
might even in a few years see tlie laws of nattire reversed, and the 
tide of shivery flowing- from the south in Virginia, to satisfy the 
phdanthropic demand for colonization. The only n)eans which 
the government couhl use to prevent tlie above described effect, 
would be either arbitrarily to fix the price of slaves below their mar- 
ket value, which vvoiild be a clear violation of the right of proper- 
ty, (which we sliall presently notice,) or to excite a feeling of in- 
security and apprehension as to this kind of property, and thus dis- 
pose the owner to part with it at less than its true value: — but 
surely no statesman would openly avow such an object, although it 
must be confessed that some of the speakers even who conterided 
that slaves should ever be treated as property, avowed sentiments 
which were c;dculated to produce sucli a result. 

It is said, however, that the southern market will at all events 
be closed against us, and consequently that the preceding argu- 
ment falls to the ground. To this we answer, that as long as the 
demand to the south exists, the supply will be furnished in some 
way or other, if our government do not unwisely tamper with the 
subject. Bryan Edwards has said, that "an attempt to prevent 
the introduction of slaves into the West Indies would be like 
chaining the winds, or giving laws to the ocean. '3» We may with 
truth affirm, that an attetnpt to prevent a circulation of this kind 
of property through the slave-holding states of our confederacy, 
would be equally if not more impracticable. But there is a most 
striking illustration of this now exhibiting before our eyes — the 
Southampton massacre produced great excitement and apprehen- 
sion throughout the slave-holding states, and two of them, hitherto 
the largest purchasers of Virginia slaves, have interdicted their in- 
troduction under severe penalties. Many in our state looked for- 
ward to an immediate fall in the price of slaves from this cause — 
and what has been the result.^ Why, M'onderful to relate, Virginia 
slaves are now higher than they have been for many years past — 
and this rise in price has no doubt been occasioned by the number 
of southern purchasers who have visited our state, under the belief 
^ that Virginians had been frightened into a determination to get 
clear of their slaves at all events ; "and from an artificial demand 
in the slave purchasing states, caused by an apprehension on the 
part of the farmers in those states, that the regular supply of slaves . 
would speedily be discontinued by the operation of their non-im- 
portation regulations;"* and we are, consequently, at this moment 

* From Louisiana, many of the farmers themselves, have come into our state, for the 
purpose of purchasing tlieir own slaves, and thereby evading the laws. There are in 
fact, so many plans which will effectually defeat all these preventive regulations, that 
we may consider their rigid enforcement, utterly impracticable; and moreover, as the 
excitement produced by the late insurrection in Virginia, dies away, so will these laws 
be forgotten and remain as_dead letters upon the statute books. 



51 

exporting slaves more rapidly, through the operation of the Inter- 
nal slave trade, than for many years past. ; 

Let us now examine a moment into the object proposed to be 
accomplished by tliis scheme, lit is contended that free labor is 
infinitely superior to slave labor in every point of view, and there- 
fore that it is highly desirable to exchange the latter (or the former, 
and that this will be gradually accomplished by emancipation and 
deportation; because the vacuum occasioned by the exportation of 
the slaves will be filled up by the influx of freemen from the north and 
other portions of the Union — and thus, for every slave we lose, it 
is contended we shall receive in exchange a free laborer, much 
more productive and more moral. If we are not greatly mistaken, 
this, on analysis, will be found to be a complete specimen of that 
arithmetical school boy reasoning, wliich has ever proved so decep- 
tive in politics, and so ruinous in its practical consequences; and 
first, let us see whether any thing will be gained in point of produc- 
tiveness, by this exchange of slave labor for free, even upon the 
avowed principles of the abolitionists themselves. The great ob- 
jections to slave labor, seem to be — First, that it is unproductive, 
or at least, not as productive as free labor; and Secondly, that it 
is calculated to repel free labor from the sphere in which it is 
exercised.' This latter efl'ect has been briefly and more ingeni- 
ously urged, by a writer in the Richmond Enquirer of the 3rd of 
March 1832, over the signature of "York," than by any one who 
is known to us, and we shall consequently introduce an extract from 
his essay. 

" Society, naturally revolves itself, "says this writer," into three 
classes. The first comprehends professional men, capitalists and 
large landed proprietors; the Second, embraces artizans and small 
proprietors; and the Third, is composed of common laborers. 
Now we are a society placed in the anomalous predicament of be- 
ing totally without a laboring class; for all our labor is performed 
by slaves, who constitute no part of that society, and who quoad 
that society, may be regarded as brutes or machines. This cir- 
cumstance operates directly as a check upon the increase of white 
population. For, as some intelligence or property is required to 
enable a man to belong to either of the two first classes above 
enumerated, (and which I have remarked are the only classes 
which we have) and as no one with ordinary self-respect, can sub- 
mit to sink below them, and become outcasts, the immediate ten- 
dency of the supernumerary members is to emigration." We will 
not for the present, dispute the premises of the very intelligent 
and graceful writer, from whom we have copied the above extract; 
we have endeavored throughout this review, to shew that our ad- 
versaries are not justified in their conclusions, even if we admit 
the truth of their premises. Now, what is the conclusion arrived 
at by our adversaries, from the premises just mentioned? That we 
must deport our slaves as fast as possible, and leave 'It vacuum to 
hf fi'led bv fvi^e labor. In the first place, then, ^we say upon 



52 

tlielr own principles even, they cannotexpect free labor to lake the 
place of slave, for every one acknowledges it utterly impossible to 
send away, alonce, all our slaves — there is scarcely we presume, a 
single abolitionist in Virginia, who has ever supposed, that we can 
send away more than the annual increase. Now, then, we ask, 
how can any one reasonably expect that the taking away of two 
or three negroes from a body of one l)nndred, (and this is a much 
greater proportion than the abolitionists hope to colonize) can des- 
troy that prejudice against laboring with the blacks, which is re- 
presented as preventing the whites from laboring, and as sending 
them in multitudes to the West._: If we are too proud to work in 
a field with fifty negro men this year, we shall surely be no more 
disposed to do it next year, because one negro, the increase of the 
fifty, has been sent to Liberia; and consequently the above reason- 
ing, if it prove anything, proves that we must prevent our laboring 
classes (the blacks) from increasing, because whites will not work 
with then* — although the whites will be just as averse to working 
with them after you have checked their increase as before ! 

But let us suppose, that by some kind of logical legerdemain, it 
can be proven that i'vee labor will supply the place of slave la- 
bor, which is deported to Africa — even then, we think they will 
lail upon their other great principle, that free labor is better than 
slave, the truth of which principle for the present, we are willing 
to allow — and tiieir wliole argument fails, for this plain and palpa- 
ble reason, that free labor by association with slave labor, must 
inevitably be brought down to its level and even below it, — for the 
vices of the slave you may correct, by means of your authority over 
him, but those of llie asssociale free laborer yon cannot. Every 
farmer in Virginia, can testify to-the truth of this assertion. He 
knows full well, that if he employs a white laborer to work with a 
black one, even at job work, where of course the inducement to la- 
bor is greatest — he will not do more than the negro, and perhaps 
in a majority of cases, he will not do as much. What then might 
we expect of him, if he should enter the field with fifty fold his 
number of blacks, to work along witli them regularly through the 
four seasons of the year? We hazard little in saying, he would be 
a more unproductive laborer than the black, for he would soon 
have all his idle propensities, without being subjected to the same 
salutary restraint. 

It is a well known general fact, to all close observers of mankind, 
that if two difterent grades of labor as to productiveness be associ- 
ated togetlier in the same occupation, the higher hasa tendency to 
descend to the level of the lower. Schmalzinhis Political Eco- 
nomy says, that the indolence and carelessness of the serfs in the 
north of Europe, corrupt the free laborers who come into contact 
with them. Jones, in his volume on Rents, says, " a new road is 
at this time (1831) making, which is to connect Hamburg and the 
Elbe with Bsrlin; it passes ov-r the sterile sands, of which so much 
of the north of Germany consists, and the materials for it are sup- 



53 

plied by those isolated blocks of granite, of which the presence on 
the surface of those sands forms a notorious geological puzzle. 
These blocks, transported to the line of road, are broken to the 
proper size by workmen, some of whom are Prussian free laborers, 
others Leibeigeners of the Mecklenburg territory, through a part 
of which the road passes. They are paid a stipulated sum for 
breaking a certain quantity, and all are paid alike. Yet the Lei- 
beigeners could not at first be prevailed upon to break more than 
one third of the quantity which formed the ordinary task of the 
Prussians. The men were77iixed, in the hope that the example and 
the gains of the more industrious, would animate the sluggish. 
Now mark the result. A contrary eflect followed ; the Leibeige- 
ners did not improve, but the exertions of the other laborers sensi- 
bly slackened, and at the time my informant (the English Engineer 
wlio superintended the work,) was speaking to me, the men were 
again at work in separate gangs carefully kept asunder.''* And 
thus do we find, by an investigation of this subject, that if we 
should introduce, hy any means. Wee labor in the stead of slave la- 
bor deported to Africa, tliat it will be certain to deteriorate by as- 
sociation with slave labor, until it sinks down to and even below 
its level. ■ So far, we have admitted the possibility of exchanging 
slave for free labor, and have endeavored to prove, upon the prin- 
ciples of the abolitionists, that nothing would be gained by it. 
We will now endeavor to prove, and we think we can do it incon- 
testibly, that the scheme of abolition and deportation will not and 
cannot possibly efl'ect this exchange of slave labor for free, 
even if it were desirable. And in order that we may examine 
the project fully in this point of view, we will endeavor — frst, 
to trace out its operation on I he slave population, and then on the 
white. 

Since the publication of the celebrated work of Dr. Malthus on 
the "principle of population," the knov\ ledge of the causes which 
aflect its condition and increase, is much more widely difl'used. It 
is now well known to every student of political economy, that in 
the wide range of legislation, there is nothing more dangerous 
than too much tampering with the elastic and powerful spring of 
population. 

The energies of government are for the most part feeble or im- 
potent when arrayed against its action. It is this procreative pow- 
er of (he human species, either exerted or dormant, which so fre- 
quently brushes away in reality the visionary fabrics of the pliilan- 
tliropists, and mars the cherished plots and schemes of statesmen. 
Euler has endeavored to prove, by some calculations, that the 
human species, under the most favorable circumstances, is capable 
of doubling itself once in twelve years. In our Western country, 
the progress of population has, in many extensive districts, been so 
rapid as to show, in our opinion most conclusively, that it is ca- 

* See Jones' Political Economy, vol. 1, pp. 51, 52 — London Edition. 

8 



54 

pable of doubling itself once in fifteen years without the aid of imi- 
gration. The whole of our population, since the independence 
of the United States, has shown itself fully capable of duplication 
in periods of twenty-five years, without the accession from abroad.* 
In some portions of our country the population is stationary, in 
others but very slowly advancing. We will assume then for the 
two extremes in our country, the stationary condition on the one 
side, and such increase on the other as to give rise to a duplication 
every fifteen years. Now as throughout the whole range compre- 
hended between these extremes, population is capable of exerting 
various degrees of energy, it is very evident that the statesman 
who wishes to increase or diminish population, must look cautious- 
ly to the eifect of his measures on its spring, and see how this will 
be acted on. If for example his object be to lessen the number of 
a slowly increasing population, he must be convinced that his plan 
does not stimulate the procreative energies of society to produce 
more than he is capable of taking away ; or if his object be to in- 
crease the numbers, take heed lest this project deaden and para- 
lyze the source of increase so much as to more than counterba- 
lance any effort of his. Now looking at the texture of the Virginia 
population, the desideratum is to diminish the blacks and increase 
the whites. Let us see how the scheme of emancipation and de- 
portation will act. We have already shown that the first operation 
of the plan, if slave property were rigidly respected and never 
taken without full compensation, would be to put a stop to the ef- 
flux from the state through other channels; but this would not be 
the only eflect. Government entering into the market vi'iih indi- 
viduals, would elevate the price of slaves beyond their natural va- 
lue, and consequently the raising of them would become an object 
of primary importance throughout the whole state. We can rea- 
dily imagine that the price of slaves might become so great that 
each master would do all in his power to encourage marriage 
among them — would allow the females almost entire exemption 
from labor, that they might the better breed and nurse — and would 
so completely concentrate his eflbrts upon this object, as to neg- 
lect other schemes and less productive sources of wealth.^ Under 
these circumstances the prolific African might no doubt be stimu- 
lated to press hard upon one of the limits above stated, doubling 
his numbers in fifteen years; and such is the tendency which our 
abolition schemes, if ever seriously engaged in, will most undoubt- 
edly produce ; they will be certain to stimulate the procreative 
powers of that very race wlwch they are ain)ing to diminish ; they 
will enlarge and invigorate the very monster which they are endea- 
voring to stifle, and realize the beautiful but melancholy fable of Sisy- 
phus, by an eternal renovation of hope and disappointment. If it 
were possible for Virginia to purchase and send off annually for the 

* The longest period of duplication has been about twenty-three years and seven 
months, so that the addition of one year and five months will more than compensate 
t'ov the emifi-ration. 



55 

next twenty-five or fifty years, 12,000 slaves, we should have very 
little hesitation in affirming, that the number of slaves in Virginia 
would not be at all lessened by the operation, and at the conclu- 
sion of the period such habits would be generated among our 
blacks, that for a long time after the cessation of the drain, popu- 
lation might advance so rapidly as to produce among us all the 
calamities and miseries of an over crowded people.; 

We are not now dealing in mere conjecture ; there is ample proof 
of the correctness of these anticipations in the history of our own 
hemisphere. The West India Islands, as we have before seen, are 
supplied with slaves more cheaply by the African slave trader than 
they can raise them, and consequently the black population in the 
Islands nowhere keeps up its numbers by natural increase. It ap- 
pears by a statement of Mr. F. Buxton recently published, that 
the total number of slaves in the British West Indies in 1817, was 
730,112. After a lapse of eleven years, in 1S2S, the numbers were 
reduced to678,527, making a loss on the capita! of 1817, in theshort 
space of eleven years, of 51,585.* In the Mauritius in the same space 
of time, the loss on the capital of 1817 amounting to but 76,774, 
was 10,767. Even in the Island of Cuba, where the negro slave 
is treated as humanely as any where on the globe, from 1804 to 
1817, the blacks lost 4,461 upon the stock of 1804. "Prior to 
the annexation of Louisiana to the United States," says Mr. Clay 
in his Colonization Speech of 1830, "the supply of slaves from 
Africa was abundant. The price of adults was generally about 
one hundred dollars, a price less than the cost of raising an infant. 
Then it was believed that the climate of the province was unfavora- 
ble to the rearing of negro children, and comparatively few were 
raised. After the United States abolished the slave trade, the price 
of adults rose very considerably — greater attention was conse- 
quently bestowed on their children, and now nowhere is the Afri- 
can female more prolific than she is in Louisiana, and the climate 
of no one of the Southern States is supposed to be more favorable 
to the rearing of her ofl'spring." For a similar reason now, the 
slaves in Virginia multiply more rapidly than in most of the South- 
ern States ; — the Virginians can raise cheaper than they can buy; 
in fact it is one of their greatest sources of profit. In many of the 
other slaveholding Slates this is not the case, and consequently the 
same care is not taken to encourage matrimony and ihe rearing of 
children. 

For a similar reason, in ancient times, few slaves were reared in 
populous districts and large towns, these being supplied with slaves 
raised at a distance or taken in war, at a cheaper rate than they 
could be raised. " The comparison is shocking," says Mr. Hume, 

* Bryan Edwards attributes the decrease of the slaves in the W. Indies principally 
to the disproporiion of tlie sexes. But in the present instance, we arc constrained to 
attribute it to another cause, for we find of the 730,1 12 slaves in the su.e:ar islands in 
1817, 369,577 were males, and 363,535 females, being very nearly an equal division of 
the sexes. 



56 

"between the management of human beings and that of cattle; but 
being extremely just when applied to«the present subject, it may 
be proper to trace the consequences of it. At the capital, near all 
great cities, in all populous rich industrious provinces, few cattle 
are bred. Provisions, lodging, attendance, labor are there dear, 
and men find their account better in buying the cattle after they 
come to a certain age, from the remoter and cheaper countries. — 
These are consequently the only breeding countries for cattle; and 
by parity of reason for men too, when the latter are put on the 
same footing with the former, as to buying and selling. To rear 
a child in London till he could be serviceable, would cost much 
dearer than to buy one of the same age from Scotland or Ireland, 
where he had been bred in a cottage, covered with rags, and fed 
on oatmeal and potatoes. Those who had slaves therefore (in 
ancient times) in all the richer and more populous countries, would 
discourage the pregnancy of the females and either prevent or de- 
stroy the birth.* ... A perpetual recruit was therefore wanted 
from the poorer and more desert provinnes- . . . All ancient au- 
thors tell us that there was a perpetual flux of slaves to Italy from 
the remoter provinces, particularly Syria, Cilicia.f Cappadocia 
and the lesser Asia, Thrace and Egypt. Yet the number of peo- 
ple did not increase in Italy."J It is thus we see every where that 
the spring of population accommodates itself to the demand for 
human beings, and becomes inert or active in .proportion to the 
value of the laborer, and the small or great expense of rearing 
him.^ 

It was upon this very principle, that Mr. Pitt, in 1791, based 
the masterly and unanswerable argument contained in his splendid 
speech on the abolition of the slave trade ; in which he proved, 
upon data furnished by the West India planters themselves, that 
the moment an end was put to the slave trade, the natural increase 
of the negroes would commence, and more than keep up their 
numbers in the Islands. 

But our opponents perhaps may be disposed to answer, that this 
increase of slavery from the stimulus to the black population af- 
forded by the colonization abroad, ought not to be objected to on our 
own principles, since each slave will be worth two hundred dollars 
or more. This answer would be correct enough if it were not that 
the increase of the blacks is eflected at our expense both as to wealth 
and numbers ; and to show this, we will now proceed to point out 
the operation of the scheme under consideration upon the white 
population. Malthus has clearly shown that population depends 
on the means of subsistence, and will, under ordinary circumstances, 

* Such means as the last mentioned, will never be resorted to by any civilized nation 
of modern limes, either in Europe or America ; but others of a less objectionable cha- 
racter most certainly will be, whenever the rearing of slaves entails a great expense on 
the master. 

I " 10,000 slaves in a day have often been sold for the use of the Romans at Delos in 
Cilicia." — Strabo, Lib. 14. 

X Se« Hume's Essays, Part 2nd, Essay 11th, on Populousness of Ancient Empires. 



57 

increase to a level with lliem. Now by means of subsistence, we 
must not only compreliend the necessaries of life, such as food, 
clothing-, shelter, &LC.,but likewise such conveniences, comforts, and 
even luxuries, as the habits of the society may render it essential 
for all to enjoy. ^^ Whatever then has a tendency to destroy the 
wealth and diminish the aggregate capital of society, has the effect, 
as long as the standard of comfort* remains the same, to check the 
progress of the population.j 

It is sure to discourage matrimony, and cause children to be less 
carefully attended to, and to be less abundantly supplied. The 
heavy burthens which have hitherto been imposed on Virginia, 
through the operation of Federal exactions, together with the high 
standard of comfort prevalent throughout the whole state, (about 
which we shall by and by make a few observations) have already 
imposed checks upon the progress of the white population of the 
state. If not one single individual were to emigrate from the state 
of Virginia, it would be found, so inert has become the principle 
of increase in the state, that the population would not advance with 
the average rapidity of the American people. Now, under these 
circumstances, an imposition of an additional burthen of 1,380,000 
dollars for the purpose of purchase and deportation of slaves, would 
add so much to the taxes of the citizens — would subtract so much 
from the capital of the state, and increase so greatly the embar- 
rassments of the whole population, that fewer persons would be 
enabled to support families, and consequently to get married. — 
This great tax, added to those we are already suffering under, 
would weigh like an incubus upon the whole state — it would ope- 
rate like the blighting hand of Providence that should render our 
soil barren and our labor unproductive. . It would diminish the 
value of the fee simple of Virginia, and not only check the natu- 
ral increase of population within the commonwealth, but would 
make every man desirous of quitting the scenes of his home and 
his infancy, and fleeing from the heavy burthen which would for 
ever keep him and his children buried in the depths of poverty. 
His sale of negroes would partly enable him to emigrate ; and we 
have little doubt, that whenever this wild scheme shall be seriously 
commenced, it will be found that more whites than negroes will 
be banished by its operation from the state. And there will be 
this lamentable difference between those who are left behind ; a 
powerful stimulus will be given to the procreative energies of the 
blacks, while those of the whites will be paralyzed and destroyed. 
Every emigrant from among the whites will create a vacuum not 
to be supplied — every removal of a black will stimulate to the ge- 
neration of another. 

" Uno avulso non deficit alter." 

The poverty stricken master would rejoice in the prolificness of 
his female slave, but pray Heaven in its kindness to strike with 

* By standard of comfort we mean that amount of necessaries, conveniences, and 
luxuries, wliicli the habits of any people render essential to them. 



58 

barrenness his own spouse, lest in the plenitude of his misfortunes, 
brought on by the wild and Quixotic philanthropy of his govern- 
ment, he might see around him a numerous oflspring unprovided 
for and destined to galling indigence 

It is almost useless to inquire whether this depoi;tation of slaves 
to Africa would, as some seem most strangely to anticipate, invite 
the whites of other states into the commonwealth. ^Who would be 
disposed to enter a state with worn out soil and a black population 
mortgaged to the payment of millions ^fir annum, for the purpose 
of emancipation and deportation, when in the West the most luxu- 
riant soils, unencumbered with heavy exactions, could be purcha- 
sed for the paltry sum of $1 25 per acre ? 

Where, then, is that multitude of whites to come from, which the 
glowing fancy of orators has sketched out as flowing into and fil- 
v^ ling up the vacuum created by the removal of slaves ? The fact 
is — throughout the whole debate in the Virginia Legislature, the 
speakers seemed to consider the increase of population as a sort of 
fixed quantity, which would remain the same undej" the endless 
change of circumstance, and consequently that every man exported 
from among the blacks, lessened ^ro tanto exactly the black popula- 
tion, and that the whites, moving on with their usual speed, would 
fill the void ; which certainly was ..an erroneous supposition, and 
manifested an almost unpardonable inattention to the wonderful 
elasticity of the powerful spring of population. The removal of 
inhabitants, accompanied with great loss of productive labor and 
capital, so far from leaving the residue in a better situation, and 
disposing them to increase and multiply, produces the directly op- 
posite efl!ect ; it deteriorates the condition of society, and deadens 
the spring of population. It is curious to look to the history of 
the world, and see how completely this position is sustained by 
facts. Since the downfal of the Roman Empire, there have been 
three forced emigrations of very considerable extent, from three of 
the countries of Europe. The Moors were expelled from Spain, 
the Protestants from the Netherlands, and the Hugonots from 
France; each of these expulsions came well nigh ruining the coun- 
try from which it took place. We are best acquainted with the 
effects of the expulsion of the Hugonots from France, because it 
happened nearer to our own times, during the reign of Louis XIV. 
In this case only 500,000 are supposed to have left France, con- 
taining then a population of 20 or 25,000,000 of souls. The en- 
ergies of this mighty country seemed at once paralyzed by this emi- 
gration, her prosperity was instantly arrested, her remaining 
population lost the vigor which characterized them as long as this 
haven was among them, and to this day, France has not recovered 
from the tremendous blow. Her inferiority to England, in indus- 
try and all the useful arts, is in a great measure to be traced back 
to this stupid intolerance of her great monarch Louis XIV. The 
reason why these expulsions were so very injurious to the countrier 
in question, was because the emigrants were the laboring classes ol 



59 

society, and their banishment consequently dried up the sources of 

produciion, and lessened the aggregate wealth and capital of the 
people. Now tliese expulsions are nothing in comparison with that 
contemplated by our abolitionists. In France only one in fifty of 
the population was expelled, and no expense was incurred in the 
deportation ; but in Virginia the proportion to be expelled is much 
greater, and the expense is to devolve on the government. 

When the emigration is accompanied with no loss of capital to 
the state, and no abstraction of productive labor, then the popu- 
lation will not be injuriously aflected, but sometimes greatly be- 
nefited. In the hunting state, the expulsion of half of the tribe 
would benefit the remainder in a politico-economical light, because 
they live on the game of the forest, which becomes more abundant 
as soon as the consumers diminish. Pastoral nations, for a like 
reason, are rarely injured by emigration, for they live on cattle, 
and the cattle live on the spontaneous produce of the earth, and 
when a colony is sent off, the remainder will generally be benefit- 
ed, since the consumption is relieved while the production is not 
diminished. And this satisfactorily explains the difllculty which 
has so much puzzled historians : — how the North of Europe, wliich 
Gibbon, Hume, and Robertson, all maintain was in a pastoral 
state, and not nearly so thickly settled as at present, should never- 
theless have been able for several centuries to furnish those terrible 
swarms of barbarians, who " gathering fresh darkness and terror" 
as they rolled on upon the South, at length, with their congrega- 
ted multitudes, " obscured the sun of Italy, and sunk the Roman 
world in night." This example of the barbarians in tlie North 
of Europe, sending so many hundreds of thousands of emigrants 
to the South, is a beautiful illustration of the capacity of popula- 
tion to counteract the effects of emigration in all those cases where 
the spring of population is not weakened. As soon as new swarms 
left the country, the means of subsistence were more ample for the 
residue; the vigor of population soon supplied the deficiency; 
and then another swarm went forth and relieved again the national 
hive. Our purchase and deportation of slaves would produce a 
similar effect on our blacks, but it would be entirely at the expense 
of both the numbers and wealth of the whites, and would be 
therefore one of the most blighting curses thai could scathe the 
land. Ireland, at present, is suffering heavy afflictions from an 
overcrowded population; but her government could not relieve 
her by sending off the paupers, and for the simple reason that it 
would require an expense on the part of Ireland which would pro- 
duce as great or even greater abstraction of capital than of un- 
productive mouths, and would moreover give more vigor to the 
spring of population. If other nations would incur the expense 
for her, then perhaps there might be for her a temporary benefit; 
but in a short time such a stimulus would be given to population, 
as would counteract all the vain efforts of man, and in the end, 
leave her in a worse condition than before. We doubt whether 



60 

England, France, and Germany, by a steady concentration of all 
their financial resources upon the deportation and comfortable set- 
tlement and support of the superabundant population of Ireland, 
would, at the expiration of fifty years, be found to have lesseried 
file numbers by one single individual. The eflect would merel}' 
be, to pledge the resources of these three nations to the support 
of the Irish population, and to substitute the procreation of Irish- 
men, for that of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Germans, and as soon 
as this support was withdrawn, the very habits which had been 
generated by it in Ireland, would be its greatest curse. The only 
efl'ectual means of relieving Ireland, will be to raise the standard 
of comfort in that country, and to arrest the population by the pre- 
ventive checks which Would lessen the marriages. Until this be 
done in some way or other, Ireland is doomed to sutler the heavy 
penalty. 

We are now prepared to explain how it is that so many negroes 
have been exported from Africa by the slave trade, while the gap, 
says. Franklin, is almost imperceptil^ln. Gen Broadnax, in his 
speech, computes the average number now annually sent out from 
Africa by the operation of the slave trade, to be 100,000;. and, he 
adds, if all this can be eflected against so many risks and hazards, 
and in violation of the laws of God and man, shall it be said that the 
whole state of Virginia caiuiot export 6,000 to Africa in a year.? 
Yes, strange as it may seem, this is all true; and the simple reason 
of the great diflerence is, that Africa incurs no expense, but on the 
contrary, generally receives a full equivalent for the deported 
slave, which augments her means of subsistence, and stiinulates 
the spring of population. The slave trade which takes oft' 100,000 
human beings /rom Africa for the slave market of the West Indies 
and South America, has by its operation, quickened the procreative 
powers of society in Africa to such an extent as not only to keep up 
her numbers, but to furnish besides 100,000 souls for exportation. 
Could we suppose it possible for this slave trade to be annihilated at a 
blow, repugnant and shocking as it is to every feeling of humanity, 
it would be found that its sudden cessation would plunge the whole 
of Western Africa for a season into the most dreadful anarchy and 
appalling distress. It would be found that the habits of the people 
had been formed to suit the slave trade, and accordingly would be 
much too favorable to the rapid increase of population without 
that trade, — prisoners of war would be slaughtered, infants mur- 
dered, marriages discouraged, and swaims of redundant citizens 
sent forth to ravage neighboring countries, and all this would arise 
from the too rapid increase of population, for the means of subsis- 
tence, caused by the sudden stopping of the slave trade. It will 
be thus seen that the 100,000 annually sent off from Africa, are 
a source of profit and not of expenditure. Saddle Africa with the 
whole of this burthen, and we are perfectly sure that the entire re- 
sources of that immense continent would not suffice to purchase 
up, send ofH and colonize 5,000 per annum. There is the same 



61 

difference between this exportation from Africa, and that proposed 
by the abolitionists from Virginia, that there is between the agri- 
culturist who sends his produce to a foreign state or country and 
receives back a full equivalent, and him who is condemned to send 
his abroad at his own expense, and to distribute it gratuitously. 
We imagine that no one who was acquainted with the condition 
of these two farmers would wonder that one should grow wealthy, 
and the other miserably poor. The 6,000 slaves which Virginia 
annually sends off to the South are a source of wealth to Virgi- 
nia; but the 1,000 or 2,000 whites who probably go to the West 
are a source of poverty ; because in the former case we have an 
equivalent left in the place of the exported slave — in the latter we 
lose both labor and capital without an equivalent; and precisely 
such a result in a much more aggravated form, will spring from 
this mad colonization scheme, should it ever be carried into ope- 
ration. ; If the governments of Europe were silly enough to ap- 
propriate their resources to the purchase of our slaves, at their 
full marketable value, for the purpose of deportation, they should, 
for ought that we could do, have every one that they could buy. 
An equivalent would thus be left for the deported slave, and how- 
ever much others might suffer for their folly, we should escape,* 

Against most of the great difficulties attendant on the plan of 
emancipation above examined, it was impossible for the abolition- 
ists entirely to close their eyes ; and it is really curious to pause a 
moment and examine some of the reflections and schemes by which 
Virginia was to be reconciled to the plan. i.. We have been told that 
it woidd not be necessary to purchase all the slaves sent away — that 
many would be surrendered by their owners without an equivalent. 
"There are a number of slave-holders," (said one who has all the 
lofty feeling and devoted patriotism which have hitherto so proudly 
characterized Virginia,) "at this very time, I do not speak from 
vain conjecture, but from what I know from the best information, 
and this number would continue to increase, who would voluntarily 
surrender their slaves, if the slate would provide the means of co- 
lonizing them elsewhere. And there would be again another class, 
I have alreadj^ heard of many, vvliile they could not afford to sa- 
crifice the entire value of their slaves, would cheerfully compro- 
mise with the state for half of their value." In the first place, we 
would remark that the gentleman's anticipation would certainly 
prove delusive — the surrender of a very few slaves would enhance 
the importance and value of the residue, and make the owner much 
more reluctant to part with them. Let an}' farmer in Lower Vir- 
ginia ask himself how many he can spare from his plantation — 
and he will be surprised to see how few can be dispensed with. If 

+ Perhaps one of the greatest blessings (if it could be reconciled to our conscience) 
which could be conferred on the southern portion of the Union, would arise from the 
total abolition of the African slave trade, and the opening the West Indian and South 
American markets to our slaves. We do not believe that deportation to any other 
quarter, or in any other way, can ever effect the slightest diminution. 

9 



> 62 

that intelligent gentleman, from the storehouse of his knowledge, 
would but Vail up the history of the past, he would see that mere 
philanthropy, with all her splendid boastings, has never yet accom- 
plished one great scheme; he would find the remark of that 
great judge of human nature, the illustrious author of the Wealth 
of Nations, that no people had the generosity to liberate their 
slaves until it became their interest to do so, but too true ; and the 
■^ philosophic page of Hume, Robertson, Stuart, and Sismondi, 
would inform him that the serfs of Europe have been only gradu- 
ally emancipated through the operation of self interest and not 
philanthropy : and we shall soon see that it was fortunate for both 
parties that this was the cause. 

But it is strange indeed that gentlemen have never reflected, that 
the pecuniary loss to the State, will be precisely the same, whether 
the negroes be purchased or gratuitously surrendered. In the latter 
case the burthen is only shifted from the whole State to that portion 
where the surrender is made — thus if we own % 10,000 worth of 
this property, and surrender the whole to government, it is evident 
that we lose the amount of $ 10,000; and if the whole of Lower 
Virginia could at once be induced to give up all of this property, 
and it could be sent away, the only eflect of this generosity and self 
devotion would be to inflict the 6/omj o^ desolation more exclusively 
on this portion of the State — the aggregate loss would be the same, 
the burthen would only be shifted from the whole to a part — the 
West would dodge the blow, and perhaps every candid citizen of 
Liower Virginia would confess that he is devoid of that refined in- 
comprehensible patriotisinvvhich would call for self immolation on 
the shrine of folly, and would most conscientiously advise the eas- 
tern Virginians never to surrender their slaves to the government 
without a fair equivalent. Can it be genuine philanthropy to per- 
suade them alone to step forward and bear the whole burthen ^ 

Again ; some have attempted to evade the difficulties by seizing 
on the increase of the negroes after a certain time. Thus Mr. 
Randolph's plan proposed that all born after the year 1840, should 
be raised by their masters to the age of eighteen for the female 
and twenty-one for the male, and then hired out, until the neat 
sum arising therefrom amounted to enough to send them away. 
Scarcely any one in the legislature — we believe not even the au- 
thor himself — entirely approved of this plan.* It is obnoxious to 
the objections we havejust been stating against voluntary surrender. 
It proposes to saddle the slave-holder with the whole burthen ; it 
infringes directly the rights of property ; it converts the fee 
simple possession of this kind of property into an estate for years; 
and it only puts off the great sacrifice required of the slate to 
1840, when most of the evils will occur that have already been 
described. In the mean time it destroys the value of slaves, and 

* The difficulty of falling upon any definite plan which can for a moment command 
the approbation of even a few of the most intelligent abolitionists, is an unerring symp- 
tom of the difficulty and impracticability of the whole. 



63 

With it all landed possessions — checks the productions of the state, 
imposes (when 1840 arrives) upon the master the intolerable and 
grievous burthen of raising his young slaves to the ages of eigh- 
teen and twenty-one, and then liberating them to be hired out un- 
der the superintendence of government (llie most miserable of all 
managers,) until the proceeds arising therefrom shall be sufficient 
to send them away. If any man at all conversant with political 
economy should ever anticipate the day when this shall happen, 
we can only say that his faith is great indeed, enough to remove 
mountains, and that he has studied in a totally different school 
from ourselves. Let us ask in the language of one of Virginia's 
most cherished statesmen, who has stood by and defended with so 
much zeal and ability the interests of Lower Virginia — and who 
shone forth one of the brightest stars in that constellation of talent 
which met together in the Virginia Convention — " Is it supposed 
that any tyranny can subdue us to the patient endurance of such a 
state of things? Every prudent slave holder in the slave holding 
parts of the state, would either migrate with his slaves to some 
state where his rights in slave property would be secured to him by 
the laws, or would surrender at once liis rights in the parent stock 
as well as in their future Increase, and seek some land where he may 
enjoy at least the earnings of his own Industry. In the first case, 
the country would be deserted; in the oilier it would be abandon- 
ed to the slaves, to be cultivated under the management of the 
state. The plan would result in a sacrifice, more probably an 
abandonment, of our landed, as well as the abolition of our slave 
property. Can any thing but force, can any force tame us to 
wrongs like these."* 

Again ; we entirely agree with the assertion of Mr. Brown, one 
of the ablest and most pronilslng of Virginia's sons, that the Inge- 
nuity of man, If exerted for the purpose, could not devise a more 
efficient mode of producing discontent among our slaves, and thus 
endangering the peace of the community. There are born annually 
of this population about 20,000 children. Tliose which are born 
before the year 1840 are to be slaves; those which are born after 
that period are to be (vec at a certain age. These two classes will 
be reared togetlier; they will labor together, and commune to- 
gether. It cannot escape the observation of him who is doomed 
to servitude, that although of the same colour and born of the 
same parents, a far different destiny awaits his more fortunate bro- 
ther — as his thoughts again and again revert to the subject, he be- 
gins to regard hunself as the victim of Injustice. Cheerfulness 
and contentment will flee from his bosom, and the most harmless 
and happy creature that lives on earth, will be transformed into a 
dark designing and desperate rebel. [Brown's Speech, pp. 8, 9.) 

There are some again who exhaust their ingenuity In devising 
schemes for taking off the breeding portion of the slaves to Africa, 

* Letters of Appomattox to people of Virginia, 1st Letter, p. 13. 



64 

or carrying away the sexes in such disproportions as will in a 
measure prevent those left behind fronn breeding. All of these 
plans merit nothing more than llie appellation of vain juggling le- 
gislative conceits, unworthy of a wise statesman and a moral man. 
If our slaves are ever to be sent away in any systematic manner, 
humanity den)ands that they should be carried in families. The 
voice of the world would condemn Virginia if she sanctioned any 
plan of deportation by which the male and female, husband and 
wife, parent and child, were systematically and relentlessly sepa- 
rated. If we are to indulge in this kind of regulating vice, why 
not cure the ill at once, by following the counsel of Xenophon in 
his Economics, and the practice of old Cato the Censor? Let us 
keep the male and female separate* in Ergastula or dungeons, if it 
be necessary, and then one generation will pass away, and the evil 
will be removed to the heart's content of our humane philanthro- 
pists! But all these puerile conceits fall far ^hort of surmounting 
the great difficulty which, like Memnon, is eternally present and 
cannot be removed. 

" Sedet eternnmque sedebit." 

There is ^100,000,000 of slave property in the state of Vir- 
ginia, and it matters but little how you destroy it, whether by the 
slow process of the cautious practitioner, or with the frightful des- 
patch of the self confident quack; when it is gone, no matter how, 
the deed will be done, and Virginia will be a desert. 

We shall now proceed to examine briefly the most dangerous of 
all the wild doctrines advanced by the abolitionists in the Virginia 
Legislature, and the one which, no doubt, will be finally acted up- 
on, if ever this business of emancipation shall be seriously com- 
menced. It was contended that property is the creature of civil so- 
ciety, and is subject to its action even to destruction. But lest we 
may misrepresent, we will give the language of the gentleman 
who first boldly and exultingly announced it. " My views are 
briefly these," said Mr. Faulkner; "they go to the foundation 
upon which the social edifice rests — property is the creature of civil 
society. — So long as that property is not dangerous to the good or- 
der of society, it may and will be tolerated. But, sir, so soon as 
it is ascertained to jeopardize the peace, the happiness, the good 
order, nay the very existence of society, from that moment the 
right by which the\' hold their property is gone, society ceases to 
give its consent, the condition upon which they are permitted to 
hold it is violated, their right ceases. — Wh}', sir, it is ever a rule 
of mimicipal law, and we use this merely as an illustration of the 
great principles of society, sic utere tuo ut alienum non Icedas. So 
hold your property as not to injure the property, still less the lives 
and happiness of your neighbors. And the moment, even in the 
best regulated communities, there is in practice a departure from 
this principle, you may abate the nuisance. It may cause loss, but 

* See Hume's Essay on the populousness of Ancient Nations, where he ascribes this 
practice to Cato and others, to prevent their slaves from breeding. 



66 

it Is wliat our black letter gentlemen term Damnum absque injuria, 
n loss for which tlie law aflords no remedy." Now for tlie appli- 
cation of these principles: "Sir, to contend that full value shall 
be paid for ilie slaves by the commonwealth, now or at any future 
period of tlieir emancipation, is to deny all right of action upon 
this subject whatsoever. It is not within the financial ability of 
the state to purchase them. We have not the means — the utmost 
extremity of taxation would fall far short of an adequate treasury. 
What then shall be done.^ We must endeavor to ascertain some 
middle ground of compromise between the rights of the commu- 
nity and the rights of individuals, some scheme which, while it re- 
sponds to the demands of the people for the extermination of the 
alarming evil, will not in its operation disconcert the settled insti- 
tutions of society, or involve the slave holder in pecuniary ruin 
and embarrassment." (Faulkner''s Speech, pp. 14, 15, 16.) 

To these doctrines we call tiie serious attention of the whole 
slave-holding population of our Union, for all alike are concerned. 
It is time indeed for Achilles to rise from his inglorious repose and 
buckle on his armor, when the enemy are about to set fire to the 
fleet. This doctrine, absurd as it may seem in the practical appli- 
cation made by the speaker, will be sure to become the most popu- 
lar with those abolitionists in Virginia, who have no slave property 
to sacrifice. It is the remark of Hobbes, that men might easily be 
brought to deny that " things equal to the same are equal to each 
other, " if their fancied interests were opposed in any way to the 
admission of this axiom. ^We find that the highly obnoxious doc- 
trine just spoken of, was not entertained by the gentleman from 
Berkele}'^ alone, but was urged to an equally ofTensive extent by Mr. 
M'Dovvell, who is supposed by his friends to have made the most 
able and eloquent speech in favor of abolition. He says, "when 
it (property) loses its utility, when it no longer contributes to the 
personal benefits and wants of its holders in any equal degree 
with the expense or the risk or the danger of keeping it, much 
more when it jeopards the security of the public; — when this 
is the case, then the original purpose for which it is authorized 
is lost, its character of property in the just and beneficial sense of 
it is gone, and it may be reg(dated without private injustice, in any 
manner which the general good of the community, by whose laws 
it was licensed, may require." [JSP DowelV s Speech, see Richmond 
Whig, 24th March 1832.) It is thus, if we may borrow the justly 
indignant language of Mr. Goode's eloquent and forcible speech, 
that " our property has been compared to a nuisance which the 
commonwealth may abate at pleasure. A nation of souls to be 
abated by the mere effort of the will of the general assembly. A 
nation of free men to hold their property by the precarious ten- 
ure of the precarious will of the general assembly ! ! and to recon- 
cile us to our condition, we are assured by the gentleman from 
Berkeley, that the general assembly, in the abundance of its libe- 
rality, is ready to enter into a compromise, by which we shall be 



66 

permitted to hold our own property twenty eight years! on condi- 
tion that we then surrender it al)Sokite]y and unconditionally. — Sir, 
I cannot but admire the frankness wiih vvliicli these gentlemen have 
treated this subject. They have exhibited theu)selves in the fulness 
of their intentions; given us warning of their designs; and we now 
see in all its nakedness the vanity of all hope of compensation." — 
[Goode^s Speech, p. 29.) 

/ The doctrine of these gentlemen, so far from being true in its 
application, is not true in theory. The great object of government 
is the protection of property : — from the days of the patriarchs down 
to the present time, the great desideratum has been to find out the 
most efficient mode of protecting property. There is not a govern- 
ment at this moment in Christendom, whose peculiar practical cha- 
racter is not the result of the state of property. 

TNo government can exist which does not conform to the state of 
property ; — it cannot make the latter conform entirely to the govern- 
ment; — an attempt to do it would and ought to revolutionize any 
state. The great difficulty in forming the government of any coun- 
try arises almost universally from the state of property, and the ne- 
cessity of making it conform to that state; and it was the state of 
property in Virginia which really constituted the whole difficulty in 
the late convention. There is a right which these gentlemen seem 
likewise to have had in their minds, which writers on the law of 
nations call the right of eminent or transcendental domain ; that 
right by which, in an exigency, the government or its agents may 
seize on persons or property, to be used for the general weal. Now, 
upon this there are two suggestions which at once present them- 
selves. — First, that this right only occurs in cases of real exigency ;* 
and secondly, that the writers on national law — and the Constitu- 
tion of the United States expressly sanctions the principle — saj', 
that no property can be thus taken without full and fair compen- 
sation. f 

These gentlemen, we hope to prove conclusively before finishing, 
have failed to show the exigency; and even if they have proved that, 
they deny the right of compensation, and upon what principle.? why, 
that the whole state is not competent to afford it, and may therefore 
justly abate the nuisance. And is it possible that a burthen, in this 
christian land, is most unfeelingly and remorselessly to be imposed 
upon a portion of the state, which, by the very confession of the 
gentlemen who urge it, could not be borne by the whole without 
inevitable ruin.'' But it was the main object of their speeches to show, 
that slave property is valueless, that it is a burthen, a nuisance to 
the owner; and they seemed most anxious to enlighten the poor ig- 
norant farmers on this point, who hold on with such pertinacity to 

* It is, then, the right of necessity, and may be defined that right ichicli autlimizes the 
performance of mi act absolutely necessary for the discharge of an indisputable duty. But pri- 
vate property must always be paid for. 

jThe Congress of the United States, in the case of Marigny d'Auterive, placed slave 
property upon precisely the same footing, in this respect, with all other kinds. 



67 

this kind of atoperty, which is inflicting- its bitterest sting upon 
them. Now, is it not enonc:h for the slave holder to reply, that the 
circumstance of the slave bearing the price of two hundred dollars 
in the market, is an evidence of his value wilii every one acquainted 
with the elements of political economy; that, generally speaking, 
the market value of the slave is even less than his real value ; for 
no one would like to own and manage slaves unless equally or more 
profitable than other kinds of investments in the same community; 
and if this or that owner may be pointed out as ruined by this spe- 
cies of property, might we not point to merchants, mechanics, law- 
yers, doctors, and divines, all of whom have been ruined by their 
several pursuits; and must all these employments be abated as nui- 
sances, to satisfy the crude, undigested theories of tampering legis- 
lators? "It is remarkable," we quote the language of the author >C 
of the Letters of Appomattox, " that this, ' nuisance' is more of- 
fensive in a direct ratio to its distance from the complaining party, 
and in an inverse ratio to the quantity of ofl^ending matter in his 
neighborhood; that a * magazine of gunpowder' in the town of 
Norfolk is a 'nuisance' to the county of Berkeley, and to all the 
people of the west! jThe people of tlie west, in which there are com- ^ 
paratively few slaves, in which there never can be any great increase 
of that kind of property, because their agriculture does not require 
it, and because in a great part of their country the negro race can- 
not be acclimated — the people of the west find our slave property 
in our planting country, where it is valuable, a ' nuisance' to them. 
This reverses the proverb, that men bear the ills of others better 
than their own. I have known men sell all their slave property 
and vest the proceeds in the stocks, and become zealous for the 
abolition of slavery. And it would be a matter of curiosity to 
ascertain (if it could be done) the aggregate number of slaves, held 
by all the orators and all the printers who are so willing to abate 
the nuisance of slave property held by other people. I suspect 
the census would be very short." — Letters of Appomattox to the 
People of Virginia. 

The fact is, it is always a most delicate and dangerous task for 
one set of people to legislate for another, without any community 
of interests. It is sure to destroy the great principle of responsi- 
bility, and in the end to lay the weaker interest at the mercy of the 
stronger. It subverts the very end for which all governments are 
established, and becomes intolerable, and consequently against the 
fundamental rights of man, whether prohibited by the constitution 
or not. _ 

If a convention of the whole state of Virginia were called, and — 
in due form the right of slave property were abolished by the votes 
of Western Virginia alone, does any one think that Eastern Vir- 
ginia wotdd be bound to yield to the decree? Certainly not. The 
strong and unjust man in a state of nature robs the weaker, and 
you establish government to prevent this oppression. Now, only 
sanction the doctrine of the Virginia orators, let one interest in 



68 

the government (the west) rob another at pleasure iihe east), and 
is there any man who can fail to see that governmem is S3"stemati- 
cally producing that very oppression wliich it is intended to remedy, 
and for wiiich alone it is established ? In forming the late Consti- 
tution of Virginia, the East objected to the " white basis princi- 
ple," upon the very grounds that it would enable Western to op- 
press Eastern Virginia, through the medium of slave properly. 
The most solemn asseverations of a total unwillingness, on the part 
of the West, to meddle with or touch the slave population, beyond the 
rightful and equitable demands of revenue, were repeatedly made 
by their orators. And now, what has the lapse of two short years 
developed? Why, that the West, unmindful of former professions, 
and regardless of the eternal principles of justice, is urging on an 
invfision and final abolition of that kind of property which it was 
solemnly pledged to protect! Is it possible that gentlemen can 
have reflected upon the consequences which even the avowal of 
such doctrines is calculated to produce? Are they conciliatory? 
Can they be taken kindly by the East? Is it not degrading for 
freemen to stand quailing with the fear of losing that property 
which they have been accumulating for ages — to stand wailing in 
fearful anxiety for the capricious edict of the West, which may say 
to one man, "sir, you must give up your property, although you 
have amassed it under the guarantee of the laws and constitutions 
of your state and of the United States;" and to another, who is near 
him and has an equal amount of property of a different descrip- 
tion, and has no more virtue and no more conscience than the 
slave holder, "you may hold yours, because we do not yet consi- 
der it a 'nuisance'?" This is language which cannot fail to awa- 
ken the people to a sense of their danger. These doctrines, when- 
ever announced in debate, have a tendency to disorganize and 
unhinge the condition of society, and to produce uncertainty and 
'alarm;* to create revulsions of capital; to cause the land of Old 
Virginia, and real source of wealth, to be abandoned; and her 
white wealthy population to flee the state, and seek an asylum in a 
land where they will be protected in the enjoyment of the fruits of 
their industry.. In fine, we would say, these doctrines are "nui- 
sances," and if we were disposed to retaliate, would add that they 
ought to be " abated." We will close our remarks on this dange- 
rous doctrine, by calling upon Western Virginia and the non-slave- 
holders of Eastern Virginia, not to be allured by the syren song. 
It is as delusive as it may appear fascinating; all the sources of 
wealth and departments of industry, all the great interests of so- 
cietv, are really interwoven with one another — they form an in- 
dissoluble chain; a blow at any part quickly vibrates through the 
whole length — the destruction of one interest involves another. 

* We look upon these doctrines as calculated to produce precisely the same results 
as are produced by the government of Turkey, which, by rendering property insecure, 
has been able to arrest, and permanently to repress, the prosperity of the fairest and 
most fertile portions of the globe. 



69 

Destroy agriculture, destroy tillage, and the ruin of the farmer 
will draw down ruin upon the mechanic, the merchant, the sailor, 
and tlie manufacturer — they must all flee together from the land of 
desolation. 

We hope we have now satisfactorily proved the impracticability 
of sending off the whole of our slave population, or even the an- 
nual increase; and we think we have been enabled to do this by 
poniting out only one lialf of the difliculties which attend the 
scheme. We have so far confined our attention to the expense 
and difliculty of purchasing the slaves, and sending them across 
the ocean. We have now to look a little to the recipient or terri- 
tory to which the blacks are to be sent ; and if vve know any thing 
of the history and nature of colonization, we shall be completely 
upheld in the assertion, that the difliculties on this score are just 
as great and insurmountable as those which we have shown to be 
attendant on the purchase and deportation. We shall be enabled 
to prove, if we may use the expression, a double impraciicability 
attendant on all these schemes. 

The Impossibility of Colonizing the Blacks. 

The whole subject of colonization is much more diflicult and 
intricate than is generally imagined, and the difliculties are often 
very diflerent from what would, on slight reflection, be anticipated. 
They are of three kinds, physical, moral, and national. The for- 
mer embraces unhealthy climate or want of proper seasoning, a 
difliculty of procuring subsistence and the conveniences of life, 
ignorance of the adaptations and character of the soils, want of 
habitations, and the necessity of living together in multitudes for 
the purposes of defence, whilst purposes of agriculture require that 
they should live as dispersed as possible. The moral difliculties 
arise from a want of adaptation on the part of the new colonists to 
their new situation, want of conformity in habits, manners, tem- 
pers, and dispositions, producing a heterogeneous mass of popula- 
tion, uncemented and unharmonizing. Lastly, the difliculties of a 
national character embrace all the causes of altercation and rup- 
ture between the colonists and neighboring tribes or nations; all 
these dangers, difliculties, and hardships, are much j^reater than 
generally believed. Every new colony requires the most constant 
attention, the most cautious and judicious management in both the 
number and character of the emigrants, a liberal supply of both 
capital and provisions, together with a most watchful and paternal 
government on the part of the inother country, which may defend 
it against the incursions and depredations of warlike or savage 
neighbors. Flence the very slow progress made by all colonies in 
their first settlement. 

The history of colonization is well calculated of itself to dissi- 
pate all the splendid visions which our chimerical philanthropists 
have indulged, in regard to its efficiency in draining off' a redun- 
10 



70 

dant or noxious population. The rage for emigration to the 
New World, discovered by Columbus, was at first very considera- 
ble; the brilliant prospects which were presented to the view of 
the Spaniards, of realizing fortunes in the abundant mines and on 
the rich soils of the islands and the continent, enticed many at 
first to leave their homes in search of wealth, happiness, and dis- 
tinction — and what was the consequence? "The numerous hard- 
ships with which the members of infant colonies have to struggle," 
says Robertson, "the diseases of unwholesome climates, fatal to 
the constitutions of Europeans; the difficulty of bringing a coun- 
try covered with forests into culture; the want of hands necessary 
for labor in some provinces, and the slow reward of industry in 
all, unless where the accidental discovery of mines enriched a few 
fortunate adventurers, were evils immensely felt and magnified. 
Discouraged by the view of these, the spirit of migration was so 
much damped, that sixty years after tiie discovery of the New 
World, the number of Spaniards in all its provinces is computed 
not to have exceeded 15,000!"* Even these few were settled at 
an expense of life both to the emigrants and the natives, which is 
really shocking to the feelings of humanity ; and we cannot peruse 
the accounts of the conquests of Mexico and Peru, without feeling 
that the race destroyed was equal, in moral worth at least, to their 
destroyers. 

In the settlement of Virginia, begun by Sir Walter Raleigh, and 
established by Lord Delaware, three attempts completely failed; 
nearly half of the first colony was destroyed by the savages, and 
the rest, consumed and worn down by fatigue and famine, deserted 
the country and returned home in despair. The second colony 
was cut off to a man in a manner unknown ; but they were suppos- 
ed to have been destroyed by the Indians. The third experienced 
the same dismal fate; and the remains of the fourth, after it had 
been reduced by famine and disease, in the course of six months^ 
from five hundred to sixty persons, were returning in a famished 
and desperate condition to England, wiien they were met in the 
mouth of the Chesapeake Bay by Lord Delaware, with a squadron 
loaded with provisions, and every thing for their relief and defence, f 
The first puritan settlers, in like manner, suflered "woes unnum- 
bered," — nearly half perished by want, scurvy, and the severity of 
the climate. 

The attempts to settle New-Holland, have presented a melan- 
choly and affecting picture of the extreme hardships which infant 
colonies have to struggle with before the produce is even equal to 
the support of the colonists. The establishment of colonies, too, 
in the eastern part of the Russian dominions, has been attended 
with precisely the same difiiculties and hardships. 

After this very brief general review of the history of modern co- 

' + Robertson',-1 America, Vol. 2. p. 151. 

'^fMaltljus on Population, given upon the authority of both Burke's and Robertson's 
Virginia. 



71 

Ionization, we will now proceed to examine into the prospects of 
colonizing- our blacks on the coast of Africa, in such numbers as 
to lessen those left behind. And in the first place we would re- 
mark, that almost all countries, especially those in southern and 
tropical latitudes, are extremely unfavorable to life when first clear- 
ed and cultivated. Almost the whole territory of the United States 
and South America, offer a conclusive illustration of this fact. 
We are daily witnessing, in the progress of tillage in our country, 
the visitation of diseases of the most destructive kind, over re- 
gions hitherto entirely exempt; our bilious fevers, for example, 
seem to travel in great measure with the progress of opening, 
clearing, and draining of the country. Now, when we turn our 
attention to Africa, on which continent all agree that we must co- 
lonize, if at all, we find almost the whole continent possessing an 
insalubrious climate under the most favorable circumstances ; 
and, consequently, we may expect this evil will be enhanced dur- 
ing the incipient stages of society, at any given point, while the 
progress of clearing, draining, and tilling is going forward. All 
the travellers through Africa agree in their descriptions of the ge- 
neral insalubrity of the climate. Park and Buffon agree in stating, 
that longevity is very rare among the negroes. At forty they are 
described as wrinkled and gray haired, and few of them survive 
the age of fifty-five or sixty; a Shangalla woman, says Bruce, at 
twenty-two, is more wrinkled and deformed by age, than a Euro- 
pean at sixty; this short duration of life is attributable to the cli- 
mate, for in looking over the returns of the census in our country, we 
find a much larger proportional number of cases of longevity among 
the blacks than the whites. "If accurate registers of mortality," 
says Malthus, (and no one was more indefatigable in his research- 
es, or more capable of drawing accurate conclusions) "were kept 
among these nations (African), I have little doubt, that including 
the mortality from wars, one in seventeen or eighteen, at least, dies 
annually, instead of one in thirty-four or thirty-six, as in the gen- 
erality of European states."* The sea coast is described as be- 
ing generally much more unhealthy than the interior. " Perhaps 
it is on this account chiefly," says Park, " that the interior coun- 
tries abound more with inhabitants than the maritime districts. "t 
The deleterious effects of African climate, are of course much 
greater upon those accustomed to different latitudes and not yet 
acclimated. It is melancholy, indeed, to peruse the dreadful 
hardships and unexampled mortality attendant upon those compa- 
nies which have from time to time, actuated by the most praisewor- 
thy views, penetrated into the interior of Africa. 

It is difficult to say, which has presented most obstacles to the 
inquisitive traveller, the suspicion and barbarity of the natives, or 
the dreadful insalubrity of the climate. Now, it is to this conti- 

* 
* See Maltluis on Population, Book 1. 1. 8. 
tSee Park's Travels in Africa, p. 193. New York Edition, 



72 

nentj the original home of our blacks, to this destructive climate 
we propose to send the slave of our country, afier the lapse of ages 
has completely inured him to our colder and more salubrious con- 
tinent. It is true, that a territory has already been secured for the 
Colonization Society of this country, which is said to enjoy an unu- 
sually healthful climate. Granting that this may be the case, still 
when we come to examine into the capacity of the purchased terri- 
tory for the reception of emigrants, we find that it only amounts 
to about 10,000 square miles, not a seventh of the super- 
ficies of Virginia. VV^hen other sites are fixed upon, we n)ay 
not, and cannot expect to be so fortunate; — are not the most 
healtliy districts in Africa the most populous, according to Park 
and all travellers? Will not these comparatively powerful nations, 
in all probability relinquish their territory with great reluctance? 
Will not our lot be consequently cast on barren sands or amid pes- 
tilential atmospheres, and then what exaggerated tales and false 
statements must be made if we would reconcile the poor blacks to 
a change of country pregnant with their fate? 

But we believe that the very laudable zeal of many conscien- 
tious philanthropists has excited an overweening desire to make 
our colony in Liberia, in every point of view, appear greatly su- 
perior to what it is. W'e know the disposition of all travellers to 
exaggerate; we know the benevolent feelings of the human heart, 
which prompt us to gratify and minister to the desires and sympa- 
thies of those around us, and we know that philanthropic schemes, 
emancipation, and colonization societies, now occupy the public 
mind, and receive the largest share of public applause. Under 
these circumstances, we are not to wonder if coloring should 
sometimes impair the statements of those who liave visited the co- 
lony ; for ourselves, we may be too sceptical, but are rather disposed 
to judge from facts which are acknowledged by all, than from gen- 
eral statements from officers and interested agents. In 1819, two 
agents were sent to Africa to survey the coast and make a selection 
of a suitable situation for a colony. In their passage home in 

1820, one died. In the same 3'ear, 1820, the Elizabeth was char- 
tered and sent out with three agents and eighty emigrants. All 
three of the agents and twenty of the emigrants died, a proportion- 
al mortality greater than in the middle passage, which has so justly 
shocked the humane feelings of mankind, and much greater than 
that occasioned by that dreadful plague (the Cholera) which is now 
clothing our land in mourning, and causing our citizens to flee in 
every direction to avoid impending destruction. In the spring of 

1821, four new agents were sent out, of whom one returned sick, 
one died in August, one in September, and we know not what be- 
came of the fourth.* It is agreed on all hands, that there is a 
seasoning necessary, and a formidable fever to be encountered, be- 

* These facts Tjje have stated upon the authority of Mr. Carey, of Philadelphia, who 
has given us an interestiiig, but I fear too flattering account of the Colony, in a series 
of letters addressed to the Hon. Charles F. Mercer. 



73 

fore the colonists can enjoy tolerable health. Mr. Ashmun, who 
afterwards fell a victim to the climate, insisted that the night air of 
Liberia was (vee from all noxious effects; and yet we find that the 
emigrants, carried by the Volador to Liberia a year or two since, 
are said to have fared well, losing only two, in consequence of 
every precaution having been taken against the night air, while the 
most dreadful mortality destroyed those of the Carolinian, which 
went out nearly contemporaneously with the Volador. The letter 
of Mr. Reynolds marked G, at the conclusion of the Fifteenth An- 
nual report of the Anierican Colonization Society, instructs us in 
the proper method of preserving health on the coast of Africa, and 
in spite of the flattering accounts and assurances of agents and 
philanthropists, we should be disposed to take warning from these 
salutary hints. The following are some of them; — 

" 1st. On no account to suffer any of the crew to be out of the 
ship at sunset. 

"2d. To have a sail stretched on the windward side of the ves- 
sel ; and an awning was also provided, which extended over the 
poop and the whole main deck, to defend the crew from the night air. 

" 3d. The night watch was encouraged to smoke tobacco. 

"4th. To distribute French brandy to the crew whilst in port, 
in lieu of rum. (The editor of tlie Report modestly recommends 
strong coffee.) The crew on rising were served with a liberal al- 
lowance of strong coffee before commencing their day's work. 

"The result was that the ships on each side of the Cambridge 
lost ihe greater part of their crews; and not one man of her crew 
was seriously unwell." (Fifteenth Annual Report, p. 51 , published 
in Georgetown, 1832.J 

We have said enough to show that the Continent of Africa, and 
its coasts particularly, are extremely unhealthy — that the natives 
themselves are not long lived — and tiiat unacclimated foreigners 
are in most imminent danger. That there may be some healthy 
points on the sea shore, and salubrious districts in the interior, and 
tliat Liberia may be fortunately one of them, we are even willing 
to admit — but then we know that generally the most insalubrious 
portions will fall into our possession, because those of an opposite 
character are already too densely populated to be deserted by the 
natives — and consequently, let us view the subject as we please, 
we shall have this mighty evil of unhealthy climate to overcome. 
We have seen already, in the past history of our colony, that the 
slightest blunder, in landing on an unhealthy coast, in exposure 
to a deadly night air, or in nej^Iecting the necessary precautions du- 
rintr the period of acclimating, has proved most frightfully fatal to 
both blacks and whites. Suppose now, that instead of the one or 
two hundred sent by the Colonization Society, Virginia should ac- 
tually send out six thousand — or if we extend our views to 
the whole United States, that sixty thousand should be annually 
exported, accompanied of course by some hundreds of whites, 
what an awful fatality might we not occasionally expect.'' The 
chance for blundering would be infinitely increased, and if some 



74 

ships might fortunately distribute their cargoes with the loss of 
few lives, others again might lose all their whites and a fourth or 
more of the blacks, as we know has already happened ; and al- 
though this fatality might arise from blunder or accident, yet would 
it strike the imagination of men — and that which may be kept 
comparatively concealed now, would, when the number of emi- 
grants swelled to such multitudes, produce alarm and consterna- 
tion. We look forward confidently to the day, if this wild scheme 
should be persevered in for a few years, when the poor African 
slave, on bended knees, might implore a remission of that fatal 
sentence which would send hitn to the land of his forefathers. 

But the fact is, that all climates will prove fatal to emigrants 
who come out in too great crowds, whether they are naturally 
unhealthy or not. One of the greatest attempts at colonization 
in modern times, was the eflort of the French to plant at once 
12,000 emigrants on the coast of Guiana. The consequence was, 
that in a very short time 10,000 of them lost their lives in all the 
horrors of despair, 2,000 returned to France, the scheme failed, 
and 25,000,000 of francs, saj'S Raynal, were totally lost. Seven- 
ty-five thousand Christians, says Mr. Eaton in his account of the 
Turkish empire, were expelled by Russia from the Crimea, and 
forced to inhabit the country deserted by the Nogai Tartars, and 
in a few years only 7000 of them remained. In like manner, if 
6000, or much more, if 60,000 negroes, with their careless and 
filihy habits, were annually sent to Africa, we could not calculate, 
for the first one or two years, upon less than the death of one-half 
or perhaps three-fourths ; and, repugnant as the assertion may be 
to the feelings of benevolence, we have no hesitation in saying, that 
nothing but a most unparalleled mortality among the emigrants, 
would enable us to support the colony for even a year or two. 
Aristotle was of opinion, that the keeping of 5000 soldiers in 
idleness would ruin an empire. If the brilliant anticipations of 
our colonization friends shall be realized, and the day actually 
arrives, when 60,000, or even 6000 blacks can be annually landed 
in health upon the coast of Africa, then will the United States, or 
broken down Virginia, be obliged to support an empire in idleness. 
"The first establishment of a new colony," says Malthus, " gen- 
erally presents an instance of a country peopled considerably be- 
yond its actual produce; and' the natural consequence seems to be, 
that this population, if not amply supplied by the mother country, 
should, at the commencement, be diminished to the level of the first 
scanty productions, and not begin permanently to increase till the 
remaining numbers had so far cultivated the soil as to iriake it 
yield a quantity of food more than suflicient for their own sup- 
port, and which consequently they could divide with a famil}^ 
The frequent failures of new colonies tend strongly to show the 
order of precedence between food and population."* It is for 

* Maltlms on Population, vol. 2. pp. 140, 141. 



75 

this reason that colonies so slowly advance at first, and it becomes 
necessary to feed them (if we may so express ourselves) with ex- 
treme caution, and with limited numbers, in the beginning. But 
a k\v additional mouths will render support from the mother coun- 
try necessary. If this slate of things continues for a short time, 
you make the colony a great pauper establishment, and generate 
all those habits of idleness and worthlessness which will ever cha- 
racterize a people dependent on the bounty of others for their 
subsistence. If Virginia should send out 6000 emigrants to Afri- 
ca, and much more, if the United States should send 60,000, the 
whole colony would inevitably perish, if the wealth of the mother 
country was not exhausted for their supply. Suppose a rhember 
in Congress should propose to send out an army of 00,000 troops, 
and maintain them on the coast of Africa; would not every sensi- 
ble man see at once that the thing would be impracticable, if even 
the existence of our country depended upon it ? — it would ruin the 
greatest empire on the globe — and yet, strange to tell, the philan- 
thropists of Virginia are seriously urging her to attempt that which 
would ever}' year impose upon her a burthen proportionally greater 
than all this ! 

If any man will for a moment revert to the history of Liberia, 
vi'hich has been as flourishing or even more flourishing than similar 
colonies, there will be seen at once enough to convince the most 
sceptical of the truth of this assertion. Whatsays Mr. Ashmun, per- 
haps the most intelligent and most judicious of colonial agents? — 
"If rice grew spontaneously," said he, '' and covered the country, 
yet it is possible by sending few or none able to reap and clean it, 
to starve 10,000 helpless children and infirm old people in the midst 
of plenty. Rice does not grow spontaneously however ; nor can 
any thing necessary for the subsistence of the human species, be 
procured here without the sweat of the brow. Clothing, tools, 
and building materials are much dearer here than in America. 
But send out your emigrants, laboring men and their families only, 
or laborious men and their families, accompanied only with their 
natural proportion of inefficieiits ; and ivith the ordinary blessings 
of God, you may depend on tlieir causing you a light expense in 
Liberia," &,c. Again, " If such persons (those who cannot work,) 
are to be supported by American funds, why not keep them in Ame- 
rica, where they can do something,, by picking cotton and stemming 
tobacco, towards supporting themselves. I know that nothing is 
effectually done in colonizing this country, till the colony's own 
resources can sustain its oivn, and n considerable, annual increase of 
population.'''' Here then are statements from one most zealous and 
enthusiastic in the cause of colonization, one who has sacrificed 
his life in the business, which clearly show that the Colonization 
Society, with its very limited means, has over supplied the colony 
with emigrants. What then might not be expected from the tre- 
mendous action of the state and general governments on this sub- 
ject? they would raise up a pauper establishment, which we con- 



76 

scientiously believe, would require the disposable wealth of the 
rest of the world to support, and the tliousands of ennigrants who 
would be sent, so far from being laborious men, would be the most 
idle and worthless of a race, who only desire liberty because they 
regard it as an exemptiun from labor and toil. Every man, too, 
at all conversant witli the subject, knows that such alone are the 
slaves which a kind master will ever consent to sell, to be carried to a 
distant land. Sixty thousand emigrants per annum to the United 
States, would even now sink the wages of labor, and embarrass 
the whole of our industrious classes, although we have at this mo- 
ment lands, capable of supporting millions more when gradually 
added to our population. 

The Irish emigrants to Great Britain, have already begun to 
produce disastrous eflects. " I am firady persuaded," says Mr. 
M'Culloch, " that nothing so deeply injurious to the character and 
habits of our people, has ever occurred, as the late extraordinary 
influx of Irish laborers. — If another bias be not given to the cur- 
rent of emigration. Great Britain will necessarily continue to be 
the grand outlet for the pauper population of Ireland, nor will the 
tide of beggary and degradation cease to flow, until the plague of 
poverty has spread its ravages over both divisions of the empire."* 
Where, then, in the wide world, can we find a fulcrum upon which 
to place our mighty lever of colonization ? nowhere ! we repeat 
it, nowhere ! unless we condemn emigrants to absolute starvation. 
Sir Josiah Childe, who lived in an age of comparative ignorance, 
could well have instructed our modern philanthropists in the true 
principles of colonization. " Such as our employment is,'^ says he, 
"so ivill our people be; and if we should imagine we have in 
England employment but for one hundred people, and we have 
born and bred (or he might have added brought) amongst us one 
hundred and fifty — fifty must away from us, or starve, or be hanged 
to prevent it."f And so say we in regard to oiir colonization — 
if our new colony cannot absorb readily more than one or two 
hundred per annum, and we send them 6000 or 60,000, the sur- 
plus " must either flee away or starve or be hanged," or be fed by 
the mother country, (which is bnposslble.) 

So far we have been attending principally to the difficulties of 
procuring subsistence ; but the habits and moral character of our 
slaves present others of equal importance and magnitude. Doctor 
Franklin says that one of the reasons why we see so many fruitless 
attempts to settle colonies at an immense public and private ex- 
pense by several of the powers of Europe, is that the moral and 
mechanical habits adapted to the mother country, are frequently 
not so to the new settled one, and to external events, many of which 
are unforeseen, and that it is to be remarked that none of the 
English colonies became any way considerable, till the necessary 

*M'Culloch's Edition of the Wealth of Nations, 4th vol. pp. 154, 155. Edin- 
burgh Edition, 
t Sir Josiah Childe's Discourse on Trade. 



77 

manners were born and grew up in the country. Now, with what 
peculiar and overwhehning force does this remark apply to our 
colonization of liberated blacks ? We are to send out ilionsands 
of these, taken from a state of slavery and ignorance, unaccus- 
tomed to guide and direct themselves, void of all the attributes of 
free agents, with dangerous notions of liberty and idleness, to ele- 
vate them at once to the condition of freemen, and invest them 
with the power of governing an empire, which will require more 
wisdom, more prudence, and at the same time more firmness than 
ever government required before. We are enabled to support our 
position by a quotation from an eloquent supporter of the Ameri- 
can colonization scheme. " Indeed," said the Rev. Mr. Bacon, 
at tile last meeting of the American Colonization Society, " it is 
something auspicious, that in the earlier stages of our undertaking, 
there has not been a general rush of emigration to the colony. In 
any single year since Cape Montserado was purchased, the influx 
of a thousand emigrants might have been fatal to our enterprize. — 
The new comers into any community must always be a minority, 
else every arrival is a. revolution ; they must be r decided minority, 
easily absorbed into the system and mingled with mass, else the 
community is constantly liable to convulsion. Let 10,000 foreign- 
ers, rnde and ignorant, be landed at once in this District (of Co- 
lumbia,) and what would be the result.? Why you must have an 
armed force here to keep the peace ; — so one thousand now landing 
at once in our colony, might be its ruin."* 

The fact is, the true and enlightened friends of colonization, 
must reprobate all those chimerical schemes proposing to deport 
any thing like the increase of one state, and more particularly of 
the whole United States. The difiiculty just explained, has alrea- 
dy been severely felt in Liberia, though hitherto supplied very 
scantily with emigrants, and those generally the most exemplary 
of the free blacks: thus in 1S28 it was the decided opinion of Mr. 
A^hmun, " that for at least two years to come, a much more dis- 
criminating selection of settlers must be made, than ever has been 
— even in the first and second expeditions b}' the Elizabeth and 
Nautilus in 1820 and '21, or that the prosperity of the colony will 
inevitably and rapidly decline.''^ Now when to all these difficulties 
we add the prospect of frequent wars with the natives of Africa,f 
the great expense we must incur to support the colon\', and the 
anomalous position of Virj:;inia, an imperium in imperio, holding 
an empire abroad, we do not see how the whole scheme can be 
pronounced any thing less than a stupendous piece of folly ^ 

The progress of the British colony at Sierra Leone is well cal- 
culated to illustrate the great difficulties of colonizing negroes on 
the coast of Africa, and we shall at once j)resent our readers with 
a brief history of this colony, given by one who seems to be a warm 

* See Fifteenth Annual Report of American Colonization Society, p. 10. 
tThe Colony has already had one conflict wiili the natives, in -which it had like to 
be overwhelmed. 

11 



78 

advocate of colonization, and consequently disposed to present the 
facts in the most favorable aspect. On the 8ih of April 1787, 
400 negroes and 60 Europeans sailed from England- supplied with 
provisions for 6 or 8 months, for Sierra Leone. Now mark the 
consequences: — "The result was unfortunate and even discourag- 
ing. The crowded condition of the transports, the unfavorable 
season at which they arrived on the coast, and the intemperance 
and imprudence of the emigrants, brought on a mortality which 
reduced their numbers nearly o?ie-/iff//'diiring- the yirs^ year. Others 
deserted soon after landing, until forty individuals only remained. 
In 1788, Mr. Sharp sent out thirty nine more, and then a number 
of the deserters returned, and the settlement gradually gained 
strength. But during the next year, a controversy with a neigh- 
boring native chief, ended in wholly dispersing the colony; and 
sometime elapsed before the remnants could be again collected. 
A charter of incorporation vvas obtained in 1791. Not long af- 
terwards, about 1200 new emigrants were introduced, being origi- 
ginally refugees from this country (United States,) who had placed 
themselves under British protection. Stil^, aftairs were very badly 
managed. One-tenth of the Nova Scotians, and half of the Euro- 
peans, died during one season, as much from want of provisions as 
any other cause. Two years afterwards, a store-ship belonging to 
the company, which had been made the receptacle of African pro- 
duce, was lost by fire, with a cargo valued at ,£15,000. Then 
INSURRECTIONS arose among the blacks ! Worst of all, in 
1794, a large French squadron, wholly without provocation, at- 
tacked the settlement, and although the colors were immediately 

struck, proceeded to an indiscriminate pillage.* (Some 

years) alter wards a large number of tlie worst part of the settlers, 
chiefly the Nova Scotians, rebelled against the Colonial Govern- 
ment. The governor called in the assistance of the neighboring 
African tribes, and matters were on the eve of a battle, when a 
transport arrived in the harbor, bringing 550 Maroons from Ja- 
maica. Lots of land were given to these men; they proved regu»- 
lar and industrious, and the insurgents laid down their arms. 
Wars next ensued with the natives, which were not finally concluded 
until 1807. On the first January 1808, all the rights and pos- 
sessions of the company were surrendered to the British Crown ; 
and in this situation they ha.ve ever since remained." (See 16th 
JVo. of the JVorth American Review, pp. 120 and 121.) The pro- 
gress of the colony since 1808, has been as little flattering as be- 
Ibre that period ; and even Mr. Everett, before the Colonization So- 
ciety in Washington, has been forced to acknowledge its failure. 
(See J\Ir. Everett^s Speech ibth-Annual Report.) 

Thus does this negro colony at Sierra Leone, illustrate most 

* We would beg leave, most respectfully to ask our Virginia Abolitionists, how an 
insult of this character oifered to any colony which we might establish in Africa, would 
be resented? Would the Juration of Virginia, declare war on the aggressor ? and if she 
did, wiiere Avould be her navy, her sailors, her soldiers, and the constitutionality of the act ? 



79 

fully the fearful and tremendous difficulties, which must ever at- 
tend every infant colony formed on the coast of Africa. During 
the hrief period of its existence, it has been visited by all the 
plagues tiiat colonial establishments " are heir to." It has been 
cursed with the intemperance, imprndence, and desertion of the 
colonists, with want of homoj2;eneous character and consequent 
dissenlions, civil wars and insurrections. It has experienced fa- 
mines, and suflered insult and pillage. Its numbers have been 
thinned b}' the blighting climate of Africa. Its government has 
been wretched, and it has been almost continually engaged in war 
with the neighboring Afric tribes.* 

Some have supposed that the circumstance of the Africans being 
removed a stage or two above the savages of North America, will 
render the colonization of Africa much easier than that of Ameri- 
ca: — we draw direct!}' the opposite conclusion. The Inrlians of 
North America had nowhere taken possession of the soil ; they 
were wanderers over the face of tlie country ; their titles could be 
extinguished for slight considerations; and it is ever melancholy 
to reflect that tlieir habits of improvidence and of intoxication, 
and even their cruel practices in war, have all been (such has been 
for them the woeful march of events,) favorable to the rapid in- 
crease of the whites, who have thus been enabled to exterminate 
the red men, and take their places. 

The natives of Africa exist in the rude agricultural state, much 
more numerously than the natives of America. Their titles to 
land will be extinguished with much more difficulty and expense. 
The very first contact with our colony will carry to them the whole 
art and implements of war.t As our colonists spread and press 
upon them, border wars will arise ; and in vain will the attenipt. 
be made to extirpate the African nations, as we have the Indian 
tribes: every inhabitant of Liberia wlio is taken prisoner by his 
enemy, will be consigned, according to the universal practice of 
Africa, to the most wretched slavery either in Africa or the West 
luflies. And what will our colon}' do .^ IMust they murder, while 
their enemies enslave.'' Oh, no, it is too cruel, and will produce 
barbarizing and exterminating wars. Will they spare the prisoners 
of war.'' No! There does not and never will exist a people on 

* Perhaps it may be said, that all these things may be avoided in our colonies, by 
wise management and proper caution. To tliis we answer, that in speculating upon 
the destiny of multitudes or nations, we must embrace within ouf calculation all the 
elements as they actually exist — civil, political, moral, and physical — and our deductions 
to be true, must be taken, not from the beau ideal which a vivid imagination may sketch 
out, but from the average of concomitant circumstances. It would be a'poor a]3o!ogy 
which a statesman could offer, for the failure of a certain campaign which he had plan- 
ned, to say that he had calculated that every officer in the army was a Napoleon or a 
Cesar, and that every reg-iment was equal to Cesar's 10th Legion or the Imperial guard 
of Napoleon. The physicians say there is not much danger to be apprehended from 
Cholera, when due caution and prudence ai-e exercised. Yet, we apprehend it would 
bR.TSr very imfair conclusion if we were to assert, that when the Cholera breaks out in 
C'narlestoa there will not be one single death, — and yet we have just as much right to 
make this assertion, as to say that our colony in Africa will be free from all the acci- 
dents, plagues and calamities to which all such cstabhslmients have ever been subjected. 

j Powder and fire-arms formed material items in the purchase of Liberia, 



80 

earth, who would tamely look on and see their wives, mothers, broth- 
ers, and sisters, ignominiously enslaved, and not resent the insult. 
What, then, will be done ? Why, they will be certain to enslave too ; 
and if domestic slavery should be interdicted in the colony, it 
would be certain to encourage the slave trade;* and if we could 
ever look forward to the time when the slave trade should be de- 
stroyed, then the throwing back of this immense current upon 
Africa would inundate all the countries of that region. It would 
be like the checking of the emigration from the northern hives 
upon the Roman world. The northern nations, in consequence 
of this check, soon experienced all the evils of a redundant popu- 
lation, and broke forth with their redundant numbers in another 
quarter; both England and France were overrun, and the repose 
of all Eurojie was again disturbed. So, would a sudden check to 
the African slave trade, cause the redundant population of Africa 
to break in, like the Normans and the Danes, on the abodes of ci- 
vilization situated in their neighborhood. Let, then, the real phi- 
lanthropist ponder over these things, and tremble for the fate of 
colonies which may be imprudently planted on the African soil. 
The history of the world has too conclusively shown, that two 
races, diflering in manners, customs, language, and civilization, 
can never harmonize upon a footing of equality. One must rule 
the other, or exteruiinaiing wars must be waged. In the case of 
the savages of North America, we have been successful in exter- 
minating them ; but in the case of African nations, we do think, 
from a view of the whole subject, that our colonists will most pro- 
bably be the victims; but the alternative is almost equally shock- 
ing, should this not be the case. They must, then, be the exter- 
minators or enslavers of all the nations of Africa with which they 
come into contact. The whole history of colonization, indeed, 
presents one of the most gloomy and horrific pictures to the ima- 
gination of the genuine philanthropist which can possibly be con- 
ceived. The many Indians who have been murdered, or driven in 
despair from the haunts and hunting grounds of their fathers — the 
heathen driven Irom his heritage, or hurried into the presence of 
his God in the full blossom of all his heathenish sins — the cruel 
slaughter of Ashantees — the murder of Burmese — all, rff/ but too 
eloquently tell the misery and despair portended by the advance 
of civilization to the savage and the pagan, whether in America, 
Africa, or Asia. In the very few cases where the work of desola- 
tion ceased, and a commingling of races ensued, it has been found 
that the civilized man has sunk down to the level of barbarism, and 
there has ended the mighty work of civilization ! Such are the 
melancholy pictures which sober reason is constrained to draw of 
the future destinies of our colony in Africa. And what, then, 
will become of that grand and glorious idea of carrying religion, 

* We fear our colony at. Liberia is not entirely free from this stain even now ; it is 
well known that the British colony at Sierra Leone has frequently aided the slave 
trade. 



81 

intelligence, industry, and the arts, to the already wronged and in- 
jured Africa? It is destined to vanish, and prove worse than 
mere dekision. Tlie rainbow of promise will be swept away, and 
we sliall awake at last to all the sad realilies of savage warfare 
and increasing barbarism. We have thus slated some of the 
principal difficulties and dangers accompanying a scheme of colo- 
nization, upon a scale as large as proposed in the Virginia Legisla- 
ture. We have said enougl) to show, that if we ever send off 
6000 per annum, we must incur an expense far beyond the pur- 
chase money. 

The expense of deportation to Africa we have estimated at 
thirty dollars; but when there is taken into the calculation the 
further expense of collecting in Virginia,* of feeding, protecting, 
&tc., in Africa, the amount swells beyond all calculation. Mr. 
Tazewell, in his al)le Report oh the colonization of free people of 
colour on the African coast, represents tliis expense as certainly 
amounting to one hundred dollars ; and judging from actual ex- 
perience, was disposed to think two hundred dollars would fall be- 
low the fair estimate. If the Virginia scheme shall ever be adopted, 
we have no doubt that both these estimates will fall below the real 
expense. The annual cost of removing 6000, instead of being 
$ 1,380,000, will swell beyond $2,400,000, an expense sufficient 
to destroy the entire value of the whole property of Virginia, 
Voltaire, in his Philosophical Dictionary, has said, that such is the 
inherent and jjreservative vigour of nations, that governments 
cannot possibly ruin them; that almost all governments which had 

* Even supposing the number of blacks, to be annually dejoorted, should ever be fixed 
by the State, the difficulty of settling upon a proper plan of purchase and collection, 
will be iniinitely greater than any man would be willing to admit, who has not seriously 
reflected on the subject, and the apple of discord will be thrown into the Virginia Legis- 
lature the moment it shall ever come to discuss the details. Sujjpose, for example, 6000 
are to lie sent off annually, will you send negro buyers throug-li the couniry to buy up 
slaves wherever tUcy can be bought, until 6000 are purchased ? If you do, you will 
inevitably gather together the veiy ilrei>;s of creation, the most vicious, the most worth- 
less and the most idle, for these alone will be sold ! a frightful population, whose multitudes 
when gathered together and poured u[ion the infant settlements in Africa, Avill be far 
mord*tlestructive than the Lava flood from the Volcano. Again, some portions of the 
state might sell cheaper than others, and an undue proportion of slaves would be pur- 
chased from these quarters, and cause the system to operate unequally. Will you di- 
vide the state into sections, and purchase from each according to black population ? 
Then, what miserable sectional CiUitroversy, should we have in the stale? What 
dreadful grumbling in the west ! Moreover, the same relative numbers abstracted from 
a very dense and a very sparse black population, will produce a very different effect on 
the labor market. Thus, we will suppose along the margin of the James River, from 
Richmond to Norfolk, the blacks are 20 for 1 white, and that in some county beyond 
the Blue Ridge, this proportion is reversed. Suppose farther, that a 20(h of the blacks 
are to be bought up and sent off, this demand will have but a slight effect on the labor 
market in the county beyond the Ridge, because it calls for only one in 400 of the popu- 
lation ; whereas the effect would be great along the James River, as it would take away 
one in 21 of the population. The slaves, in every section, would command a different 
price ; and we should be obliged to establish our Octroi and Douanier, and lax or prevent 
the migration of negroes from one section to another. But we will not pursue further 
the examination of mere details, which do not fall within our original design. It will 
be discovered from even a slight analysis, that every single branch of this gigantic 
scheme of folly, like the teeth of the fabled Dreigon, will bring you fortla an armed man 
to arrest your progress. 



b2 

been established in the world had made the attempt, but had failed. 
If the sage of France had lived in our days, he would have had a 
receipt furnislied by some of our philanthropists, by which this 
work might have been accomplished ! We vead in holy writ of 
one great emigration from the land of Egypt, and the concomi- 
tant circumstances should bid us well beware of an imitation, un- 
less assisted by the constant presence of Jehovah. Ten plagues 
were sent upon the land of Egypt before Pharaoh would consent 
to part with tlie Israelites, the productive laborers of his kingdom. 
But a short time convinced him of the heavy loss which he sus- 
tained by their removal, and he gave pursuit ; but God was pre- 
sent with the Israelites — He parted the waters of the Red Sea for 
their passage, and closed them over the Egyptians — He led on his 
chosen people thi;ough the wilderness, testifying his presence in 
a pillar of fire by night and a cloud of smoke by day — He sup- 
plied them with manna in their long journej-, sending a sufficien- 
cy on the sixth for that and the seventh day. When tliey were 
thirsty the rocks poured forth waters, and when they finally ar- 
rived in the land of promise, after the. loss of a generation, the 
mysterious will of heaven had doomed the tribes of Canaan to 
destruction; fear and apprehension confounded all their counsels ; 
their battlements sunk down at the trumpet's sound ; the native 
hosts, under heaven's command, were all slaughtered ; and the 
children of Israel took possession of the habitations and property 
of the slaughtered inhabitants. The whole history of tiiis emi- 
gration bcautifull}' illustrates the great diflicultics and hardships of 
removal to foreign lands of multitudes of people. And as a citi- 
zen of Virginia, we can never consent to so grand a scheme of 
colonization on the coast of Africa, until it is sanctioned by a de- 
cree of heaven, made known by signs, far more intelligible than 
an eclipse and greenness of the sun — till manna shall be rained 
down for the subsistence of our black emigrants — till seas shall be 
parted, and waters flow from rocks for their accommodation — till 
we shall have a leader like Moses, who, in the full confidence of 
all his piety and all his religion, can, in the midst of all the ap- 
palling difliculties and calamities by which he may be surrounded, 
speak forth to Jiis murmuring people, in the language of comfort, 
" Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which 
he will shew to you to-day." 

But, say some, if Virginia cannot accomplish this work, let us 
call upon the general government for aid — let Hercules be request- 
ed to put his shoulders to the wheels, and roll us through the for- 
midable quagmire of our difliculties. Delusive prospect! Cor- 
rupting scheme! We will throw all constitutional difliculties out of 
view, and ask if the federal government can be requested to un- 
dertake the expense for Virginia, without encountering it for the 
whole slave holding population?- And then, whence can be drawn 
the funds to purchase more than 2,000,000 of slaves, worth at the 
lowest calculation $ 400,000,000 ; or if the increase alone be sent 



S3 

off, can Congress undertake annually to purchase at least GO, 000 
slaves at an expense of $ 12,000,000, and deport and colonize 
them at an expense of twelve or fifteen n)illions more?* But the 
fabled hydra would be more than realized in this project. We 
have no doubt that if the United States in good faith should en- 
ter into the slave markets of the country, determined to purchase 
up the whole annual increase of our slaves, so unwise a project, by 
its artificial demand, wonhi immediately produce a rise in this pro- 
perty', throughout the whole soutiiern country, of at least 33 1-3 
per cent. It would stimulate aud invigorate the spring of black 
population, which, by its tremendous action, would set at naught 
the puny eflbrts of man, and like the Grecian matron, unweave in 
the night what had been woven in the day. We might well calcu- 
late upon an annual increase of at least four aud an half per cent, 
upon our two millions of slaves, if ever the United States should 
create the artifical demand which we have just spoken of; and 
then, instead of an increase of 60,000, there will be 90,000, bear- 
ing the average price of $ 300 each, making the enormous annual 
expense of purchase alone $27,000,000 ! — and difficulties, too, on 
the side of the colony, vvoidd more than enlarge with the increase 
of the evil at home. Our Colonization Society has been more 
than fifteen years at work ; it luis purchased, according to its friends, 
a district of country as congenial to the constitution of the black 
as any in Africa; it has, as we have seen, frequently over-supplied 
the colony with emigrants; and mark the result, Tor it is worthy of 
all observation, there are now not more than 2000 or 2500 inha- 
bitants in Liberia ! And these are alarmed lest the Southhampton in- 
surrection may cause such an emigration as toinuudate the colony. 
When, then, in the lapse of time, can we ever expect to build up a 
colony which can receive sixty or ninety thousand slaves per an- 
num? And if this should ever arrive, what guarantee could be 
furnished us that their ports would always be open to our emi- 
grants? Would law or compact answer ? Oh, no! Some legislator, 
in the plenitude of his wisdom, might arise, who could easily and 
truly persuade his countrymen that these annual importations of 
blacks were nuisances, and that the laws of God, whatever might 
be those of men, would justify their abatement. And the drama 
would be wound up in this land of promise and expectation, by 
turning the cannon's mouth against the liberated emigrant and de- 
luded philanthropist. The scljcme of colonizing our blacks on 
the coast of Africa, or any where else, by the United States, is thus 
seen to be more stupendously absurd than even the Virginia pro- 
ject. King Canute, the Dane, seated on the sea shore, and order- 
ing the rising flood to recede from his royal feet, was not guilty of 
more vanity and presumpjuon than the government of the United 
States would manifest, in the vain efibrt of removing and coloniz- 

* Wc mwst recolltct, that the expense of colonizing increases much more rapidly 
than in proportion to tlie simple increase of the number of emigrants. 



ing the annual increase of our blacks. So far from being able to 
remove the whole annual increase every year, we shall not be ena- 
bled to send off a number sufficiently great, to check even the ^eo- 
metricnl rate of increase. Our black population, is now produ- 
cing 60,000 per annum, and next 3'ear, we must add to this sum 
1800, which the increment alone, is capable of producing, and the 
year after, the increment upon the increment, &lc. - Now, let us 
tbrow out of view for a moment, the idea of ^jrappling with the 
whole annual uicrease, and see whether by colonization, we can 
expect to turn this geometrical increase into an arithmetical one. 
We will then lake the annual increase, 60,000, as our capital, and 
it will be necessary to send off the incr^sase upon this, 1800, to 
prevent the geometrical increase of the whole black population. 
Let us, then, for a moment, inquire whether the abolitionists can 
expect to realize this jjetty advantage. 

Mr. Bacon admits, that 1000 emigrants now thrown on Liberia, 
would ruin it. We believe that every reflecting sober member of 
the Colonization Society, will acknowledge, that 500 annually, are 
fully as many as the colony can now receive. We will assume this 
nun>ber, ihoujih no doubt greatly beyond the truth ; and we will 
admit further, (what we could easily demonstrate to be much too 
liberal a concession,) that the capacity of the colony for the re- 
ception of emigrants, may be made to enlarge in a geometrical ratio, 
equal to that of the rate of increase of tlie blacks in the United 
States. Now with these \ery liberal concessions on our part, let us 
examine into the effect of the colonization scheme. At the end of 
the first year, we shall have for the amount of the 60,000, increas- 
ing at the rate of 3^ percent. 61,800; and subslracting 500, we 
shall begin the second year, with ihe number of 61,300, which in- 
creasing at the rate of 3i per cent, gives 63,139 for the amount 
at the end of the second 3'ear. Proceeding thus, we obtain at the 
end of 25 years, for the amount of the 60,000, 101,208. The 
number taken away, that is the sum of 500 + 500 X 1,003 + 500 X 
1,003^ &z;c, will be 18,197. It is thus seen, that in spite of the 
efforts of the colonization scheme, the bare annual increase of our 
slaves, will produce 41,208 more than can be sent off; which num- 
ber of course must be added to the capital of 60,000; — and long, 
very long, before the colony in Africa upon our system of calcula- 
tion even could receive the increase upon this accumulating capi- 
tal, its capacity as a recipient would be checked b}' the limitation 
of territory and the rapid filling up of the population, both by immi- 
gration and natural increase. And thus by a simple arithmetical 
calculation, we may be convinced- that the effort to check even the 
geometrical rate of increase, by sending off the increment upon the 
annual increase of our slaves, is greatly more than we can accom- 
plish, and must inevitably terminate in disappoinment, — more than 
realizing tlie fable of the Frog and the Ox, — for in this case we 
should have the frog swelling, not for the purpose of rivalling the 
ox in size, but to swalloiv kirn down horns' and all! ! 



Seeing thenj that the effort to send away llie increase, on even 
the present increase of our slaves, must be vain and fruitless — how 
stupendously absurd must be the project, proposing to send off tlie 
whole increase, so as to keep down the negro population at its pre- 
sent amount ! There are some things which man arrayed in all his 
" brief authority" — cannot accomplish, and this is one of them. 
Colonization schemers, big and busy in the management of all their 
Utile machinery, and gravely proposing it as an engine by which 
our black population may be sent to the now uncongenial home of 
their ancestors, across an ocean of thousands of miles in width, but 
too strongly remind us of the vain man, who in all the pomp 
and circumstance of power, ordered his servile attendants to stop 
the rise of ocean's tide, by carrying off its accumulating waters. 
Emigration has rarely checked the increase of population, by di- 
rectly lessening its number — it can only do it by the abstraction of 
capital and by paralyzing the spring of population, — and then it 
blights and withers the prosperity of the land. The population of 
Europe has not been thinned by emigration to the new world — the 
province of Andalusia in Spain, which sent out the greatest num- 
ber of emigrants to the Islands and to Mexico and Peru, has been 
precisely the district in Spain which iias increased its population 
most rapidly. Ireland now sends forth a greater number of emi- 
grants, than any other country in the world ; and yet the population 
of Ireland, is now increasing faster than any other population of 
Europe ! 

We hope, we have now said enough of these colonization schemes, 
to show that we can never expect to send off our black population, 
by their means, — and we cannot conclude without addressing a 
word of caution to the generous sons of the Old Dominion. It 
behooves theni. well to beware with what intent they look to the Fe- 
deral Government, for aid-in the accomplisiunent of these delusive — 
these impracticable projects. The guileful tempter of our original 
parents, seduced them with the offer of an apple, which proved 
their heaviest curse, drove them from the garden of Eden, and des- 
troyed forever, their state of innocence and purity. Let Virginia 
beware then, that she be not tempted by the apple, to descend Irom 
that lofty eminence wliich she has hitherto occupied in our confe- 
deracy, and sacrifice upon the altar of misconceived interests — those 
pure political principles by which she has hitherto been so proudly 
characterised. This whole question of emancipation and deporta- 
tion, is but too well calculated to furnish the political lever, by 
which Virginia is to be prised out of her natural and honorable 
position in the union, and made to sacrifice her noble political 
creed. We have witnessed with feelings of no common kind, the 
almost suppliant look cast towards the general government, by 
some of the orators in the Virginia debate. It has pained us to 
read speeches and pamphlets and newspaper essays, suggesting 
changes in the constitution, or at once boldly imploring without 
such changes, the action of the Federal Government, Unless the 
12 



86 

sturdy patriots of Virginia stand fortli, we fear indeed, that her 
noble principles will be swept away by the tide of corruption. 
The agitation of the slave question in the last Virginia Legisla- 
ture, has already begun the work, and the consent of Virginia to 
receive federal aid in the scheme of emancipation and deportation, 
would complete it. As long as a state relies upon its own resources, 
and looks to no foreign quarter for aid or support, so long does she 
place herself without tlie sphere of temptation, and preserve her 
political virtue. This is one principal reason why Virginia has 
produced so many disinterested patriots — we will go further still, 
the generous, disinterested and noble character of southern politics 
generally, is in a great measure attributable to this very cause — 
the South has hitherto had nothing to ask of the Federal Government 
— she has been no dependent, no expectantat the door of the Fede- 
ral Treasury — she has never therefore, betrayed the interest of the 
Union, for some paltry benefit to herself. But let her once con- 
sent to supplicate the aid of the general government on this slave 
question — and that moment will she sacrifice her high political 
principles, and become a dependent on that government. When 
Virginia shall consent to receive this boon, her hands will be tied 
forever, the emancipating interest will be added to the internal im- 
provement m^d Tariff mtevusts, and Virginia can no mo-re array 
herself against the torrent of federal oppression; hitched to the 
car of the Federal Government, she will be ignoniiniously dragged 
forward, a conscience-stricken partner in the unholy alliance for 
oppression; and in that day, the genuine patriot, may well cast a 
longing, lingering look back to the days of purer principles, and 
"sigh for the loss of Eden." And in this melancholy saddening 
retrospect, he will not have the poor consolation left, of seeing his 
once noble state, reap the paltry reward, which had so fatally 
tempted her to an abandonment of all lier principles. Can any 
reflecting man, for a moment believe, that the North and West, form- 
ing the majority in our confederacy, would ever seriously consent 
to that enormous expenditure which would be necessary to carry 
into effect, this gigantic colonization scheme — a scheme whose di- 
rect operation would be, to take away that very labor, which now 
bears the burthen of federal exactions — a scheme whose operation 
would be to dry up the sources of that very revenue, upon which its- 
success entirely depends! ! Vain and delusive hope ! Not one ne- 
gro slave will ever be sent away from this country by federal funds — 
and heaven forbid there ever should, — and yet we fear the longing,, 
lingering hope, will corrupt the pure principles of many a deluded 
patriot. 

We have thus examined fully this scheme of emancipation and 
deportation, and trust we have satisfactorily shown, that the whole 
plan is utterly impracticable, requiring an expense and sacrifice of 
property far beyond the entire resources of the state and federal 
governments. We shall now proceed to inquire, whether we can 
emancipate our slaves with permission that they remain among us. 



87 
Emancipation without Deportation. 

5Ve candidly confess, lliat we look upon this last mentioned 
scheme as much more practicable and likely to be forced upon us, 
than tlie former. . We consider it at the same time so fraught with 
danger and mischief both to the whites and blacks — so utterly sub- 
versive of the welfare of the slaVe holding country, in both an econo- 
mical ainl moral point of view, that we cannot, upon any principle of 
right or expediency, give it our sanction. ^ Almost all the speakers 
in the Virginia Legislature seemed to think there ought to be no 
emancipation without deportation. Mr. Clay, too, in his celebra- 
ted Colonization speech of 1830, says, "If the question were sub- 
mitted wliether there should be immediate or gradual emancipation of 
all the slaves in the United States, without their removal or coloniza- 
tion, painful as it is to express the opinion, I have no douht that it 
would be unwise to emancipate them. I believe, that the aggregate 
of evils which would be engendered in society, upon the supposi- 
tion of general emancipation, and of the liberated slaves remaining 
principally among us, would be greater than all tlie evils of sla- 
very, great as they unquestionably are." ^ven the northern phi- 
lanthropists themselves admit, generall}', that there should be no 
emancipation without removal. Perhaps, then, under these cir- 
cumstances, we might have been justified in closing our review 
with a consideration of the colonization scheme; but as we are 
anxious to survey this subject fully in all its aspects, and to de- 
monstrate upon every ground the complete justification of the 
whole southern country in a further continuance of that system of 
slavery which has been originated by no fault of theirs, and con- 
tinued and increased contrary to their most earnest desires and pe- 
titions, we have determined briefly to examine this scheme like- 
wise. As we believe the scheme of deportation M^^er/^ impractica- 
ble, we liave come to the conclusion that in the present great ques- 
tion, the real and decisive line of conduct is either abolition 
ivithout removal, or a steady perseverance in the system now estab- 
lished. "Paltry and timid minds," says the present Lord Chan- 
cellor of England on this very subject, "shudder at the thought 
of mere inactivity, as cowardly troops tremble at the idea of calmly 
waiting for the enemy's approach. Both the one and the other 
hasten their fate by relentless and foolish movements." 

' The great ground upon which we shall rest our argument on 
this subject is, that the slaves, in both an economical and 7noral point 
of view, are entirely unfit for a slate of freedom amo7ig the whites; 
and we shall produce such proofs and illustrations of our position, 
as seem to us perfectlj' conclusive. That condition of our species 
from which the most important consequences flow, says Mr. Mill 
the Utilitarian, is the necessity of labor for the supply of the fund 
of our necessaries and conveniences. It is this which influences, 
perhaps more than any other, even our moral and religious cha- 
racter, and determines more than every thing else besides, the social 



and political slate of man. It must enter into the calculations of 
not only the political economist, but even of the metaphysician, 
the moralist, the theologian, and politician. 

We shall therefore proceed at once to inquire what effect would 
be produced upon the slaves of the South in an economical point 
of view, by emancipation with permission to remain — whether the 
voluntary labor of the freedman would be as great as the involun- 
tary labor of the slave? Fortunately for us this question has been 
so frequently and fairly subjected to the test of experience, that 
we are no longer left to vain and fruitless conjecture. INIuch was 
said in the legislature of Virginia about superiority of free labor 
over slave, and perhaps under certain circumstances this might be 
true; but in the present instance, the question is between the rela- 
tive amounts of labor which may be obtained from slaves before and 
after their emancipation. Let us then first commence with our 
country, where it is well known to every body, that slave labor is 
vastly more efficient and productive, than the labor of free blacks. 

Taken as a whole class, the latter must be considered the most 
worthless and indolent of the citizens of the United States. It is 
well known that throughout the whole extent of our Union, they 
are looked upon as the very drones and pests of society. Nor 
does this character arise from the disabilities and disfranchisement 
by which the law attempts to guard against them. In the non- 
slave-holding states, where they have been more elevated by law, 
this kind of population is in a worse condition and much more 
troublesome to society, than in the slave holding, and especially 
in the planting states. Ohio, some years ago, formed a sort of 
land of promise for this deluded class, to which many repaired 
from the slave holding states; and what has been the consequence.'* 
They have been most harshly expelled from that state and forced 
to take refuge in a foreign land. Look through all the Northern 
States, and mark the class upon whom the eye of the police is 
most steadily and constantly kept — see with what vigilance and care 
they are hunted down from place to place — and you cannot fail to 
see, that idleness and improvidence are at the root of all their 
misfortunes. Not onl}' does the experience of our own country 
illustrate this great fact, but others furnish abundant testimony. 

"The free negroes," says Brougham, "in the West Indies, are, 
with a very few exceptions, chiefly in the Spanish and Portuguese 
settlements, ec[ually averse to all sorts of labor which do not contri- 
bute to the supply of their immediate and most urgent wants. Im- 
provident and careless of the future, they are not actuated by 
that principle which inclines more civilized men to equalize their 
exertions at all times, and to work after the necessaries of the day 
have been procured, in order to make up for the possible defici- 
ences of the morrow; nor has their intercourse with the whites 
taught them to consider any gratification as worth obtaining, 
which cannot be procured by slight exertion of desultory and ca- 



89 

pricious industry."* In the Report of the Committee of the Privy 
Council in Great Britain, in 1788, the most ample proof of this 
assertion is brought forward. In Jamaica and Barbadoes, it was 
stated, that free negroes were never known to work for hire, 
and they have all the vices of the slaves. Mv. Braithwait tiie 
agent for Barbadoes, affirmed, that if the slaves in that Island 
were offered their freedom on condition of working for themselves, 
not one-tenth of them would a(xept it. In all the other colonies 
the statements agree most accurately with those collected by the 
Committee of the Privy Council. "M. Malouet, who bore a spe- 
cial commission from the present government to examine the cha- 
racter and habits of the Maroons in Dutch Guiana,^ and to deter- 
mine whether or not they were adapted to become hired laborers, 
informs us that they will only work one day in the week, which 
they find abundantly sufficient in the fertile soil and genial climate 
of the New World, to supply all the wants that they have yet 
learnt to feel. The rest of their time is spent-in absolute indolence 
and sloth. ^ Le repos,^ says he, ' et Voisivete sont devenus dans leur 
etat social leur unique passion.'' He gives the very same descrip- 
tion of the free negroes in the French colonies, although many 
of them possess lands and slaves. The spectacle, he tells us, was 
never yet exhibited of a free negro supporting his family by the 
culture of his little property. All other authors agree in giving 
the same description of free negroes in the British, French, apd 
Dutch colonies, by whatever denomination they may be distin- 
guished, whether Maroons, Caraibes, free blacks, or fugitive 
:-laves. The Abbe Raynal, with all his ridiculous fondness for sa- 
van:;es, cannot, in the present instance, so far twist the facts ac- 
cord'ng to his fancies and feelings, as to give a favorable portrait 
of this degraded race."-j- 

From these facts, it would require no great sagacity to come to 
the conclusion, that slave cannot be converted into tree labor with- 
out imminent danger to the prosperity and wealth of the country 
where the change takes plaqe — and in this particular it matters 
not what may be the color of the slave. In the commencement 
of the reign of Charles V., the representations of Las Casas de- 
termined Cardinal Ximenes, the prime minister of Charles, to 
make an experiment of the conversion of slave labor into free; 
and for this purpose pious commissioners were sent out, attended 
by Las Casas himself, for the purpose of liberating the Indian 
slaves in the New World. Now mark the result — these commis- 
sioners, chosen from the cloister, and big with real philanthropy, 
repaired to the Western World intent upon the great work of eman • 
cipation. " Their ears," says Robertson, " were open to infor- 
mation from every quarter — they compared the different accounts 
which they received — and after a mature consideration of the 



♦Brougham's Colonial Policy, Book IV. sec. 1. 
* Brougham's Colonial Policy. 



90 

whole, they were fully satisfied that the slate of the colony render- 
ed it impossible to adopt the plan proposed by Las Casas, and re- 
commended by the Cardinal. They plainly perceived, that no allure- 
ment was so powerful as to surmount the natural aversion of the 
Indians to any laborious effort, and that nothing but the authority 
of a master could compel them to work ; and if they were not 
kept constantly under the eye and discipline of a superior, so 
great were their natural listlessness and indifierence, that they 
would neither attend to religious instruction, nor observe those 
rights of Christianity which they had been already taught. Upon 
all these accounts the superintendents found it necessary to tolerate 
repartimientos, and to sufler the Indians to remain under subjection 
to their Spanish masters."* In the latter part of his reign, Charles, 
with most imprudent and fatal decision, proclaimed the immediate 
and universal emancipation of all the Indians — and precisely what 
any man of reflection might have anticipated resulted. Their in- 
dustry arid freedom were found entirely incompatible. The alarm 
was instantly spread over the whole Spanish colonies. Peru, for 
a time lost to the monarchy, was only restored by the' repeal of 
the obnoxious law ; and in New Spain quiet was only preserved by 
a combination of the governor and subjects to suspend its execu- 
tion. During the mad career of the French revolution, the slaves 
in the French colonies were for a time liberated, and even in Cay- 
enne, where the experiment succeeded best in consequence of the 
paucity of slaves, it cotnpletely demonstrated the superiority of 
slave over free black labor; and generally the re-establishment 
of slavery was attended with the most happy consequences, and 
even courted by the negroes themselves, who became heartily tired 
of their short lived liberty. Of the great experiment which has 
been recently made in Colombia and Guatemala, we shall present- 
ly speak. We believe it has completely proved the same well es- 
tablished fact — the great superiority of slave over free negro labor. 
Mr. Clarkson, in his pamphlet on Slavery, has alluded in terms 
of high commendation to an experiment made in Barbadoes, on 
Mr. Steele's plantation, which he contends has proved the safety 
and facility of the transition from slave to free labor. It seems 
Mr. Steele parcelled out his land among his negroes, and paid 
them wages for their labor. Now, we invite particularly the at- 
tention of our readers to the following extracts from the'letter of 
Mr. Sealy, a neighbor of Mr. Steele, which will not only serve to 
establish our position, but afford an illustration of the melancholy 
fact, that the best of men cannot be relied on when under the influ- 
ence of prejudice and passion. " It so'happened," says Mr. Sealy, 
"that 1 I'esided on the nearest adjoining estate to Mr.>Steele, and 
superintended the management of it myself for many years; I had 
therefore a better opportunity of forming an opinion than Mr. 
Clarkson can have — he has read Mr. Steele's account — I witness 

* Robertson's America, vol. 1, p. 123. 



91 

seel the operations and effects of his plans. He possessed one oTthe 
largest and most seasonable plantations, in a delightful part of the 
island ; with all these advantages his estate was never in as good 
order as those in the same neighborhood, and the crops were nei- 
ther adequate to the size and resources of the estate, nor in pro- 
portion to those of other estates in the same part of the island. 
Finally, after an experiment of thirty years under Mr. Steele, and 
his executor, Mr. T. Bell, Mr. Steele's debts remained unpaid, and 
the plantation was sold by a decree of the Court of Chancery. 
After the debts and costs of suit were paid, very little remained 
out of £45,000 to go to the residuary legatees. 

" It was very well known that the negroes rejoiced when the 
change took place, and thanked iheir God that they were relieved 
from the copyliold system. Such was the final result and success 
that attended this system, which has been so much eulogized by 
Mr. Clarkson. After the estate was sold and the system changed, 
I had equally an opportunity of observing the management, and 
certainly the manifest improvement was strong evidence in favor 
of the change. Fields which had been covered with bushes for a 
series of years,' were brought into cultivation, and the number of 
pounds of sugar was in some years more than doubled under the new 
management; the provision crops also were abundant; consequent- 
ly the negroes and stock were amply provided for." Again; the 
Attornev General, of Barbadoes corroborates the statements of 
Mr. Seaiy in the most positive terms: he sa^'s, "I was surprised 
to see it asserted lately in print, that his, Mr. Steele's plantation, 
succeeded well under that management. I know it to be false. It 
failed considerably ; and had he lived a few years longer, he would 
have died not worth a farthing. Upon his death they reverted to 
the old system, to which the slaves readily and willingly returned; 
the plantation now succeeds, and the slaves are contented and 
happy, and think themselves much better off than under the co- 
pyhold system, for their wages would not afford them many com- 
forts which they have now."* (Upon this subject see No. LX. 
London Quarterly. Art. West India Colonies.) But a short time 
since, a highly respectable, and one of the most intelligent farmers 
of Virginia, informed us that he had-actually tried, upon a much 
smaller scale, a similar experiment, and that it entirely failed; the 



* If it were not that the experiment would be too dangerovis and costly, we would 
have no objection to see our slaves gratified with the enjoyment of freedom for a short 
time. There is no doubt but that they, like the Poles, Livonians, &c., and the negroes 
of JMr. Steele, would soon sigh again for a master's control, and a master's support and 
protection. It is a well known fact, that upon the borders of the free states, our slaves are 
not as much disposed to elope, as those who are situated farther off, and the reason is, 
they are near enough to witness the condition of the free black laborer, and they know 
it is far more wretched than their own. A citizen of the west, who is as well acquaint- 
ed with this whole subject as any other in the stale, or in the United States, informed 
us a short time since that the slaves of Botetourt and JMontgomery, were much more 
disposed to elope and settle in Ohio than those of Cabel and Mason, situated on the 
borders — because the former are not so well acquainted with the real condition of the 
free black as the latter. 



92 

negroes, devoid of judgment and good management, became lazy 
and improvident, and every time one was so unfortunate as to fall 
sick, it immediately became necessary to support him. The whole 
plan soon disgusted the master, and proved that the free labor 
system would not answer for the best of our negroes; for those 
he tried were his best. Now these experiments were the more 
conclusive, because the master reserved the right of reimposing 
slavery upon them in case the experiment should not meet his ap- 
probation : every stimulus was thus offered, in case their freedom 
were really desirable, to work hard, b^it their natural indolence 
and carelessness triumphed over love of liberty, and demonstrated 
the fact, that free labor made out of slave, is the worst in the world. 
So far we have adduced instances from among mixed popula- 
tions alone. Some have imagined that the indolence of the libe- 
rated black in these cases, has arisen entirely from the presence of 
the whites, acknowledged to be the superior race both by law and 
custom ; that consequently if the blacks could be freed from the 
degrading influence exerted by the mere pressure of the whites, 
they would quickly manifest more desire to accumulate and acquire 
all the industrious habits of the English operative or New-Eng- 
land laborer. Although this is foreign to our immediate object, 
which is to prove the inefficacy office black labor in our country, 
where of course whites must always be present, we will neverthe- 
less examine this opinion, because it has been urged in favor of 
that grand scheme of colonization recommended by some of the 
orators in the Virginia Legislature. Our own opinion is that the 
presence of the whites ought rather to be an incentive and encou- 
ragement to labor. Habits of industry are more easily acquired 
when all are busy and active around us. A man feels a spirit of 
industry and activity stir within him, from moving amongst such 
societies as those of Marseilles, Liverpool, and New-York, whei'e 
the din of business and bustle assails his ears at every turn, where- 
as he soon becomes indolent and listless at Bath or Saratoga. Why 
then are our colored free men so generally indolent and worthless 
among the industrious and enterprising citizens of even our 
northern and New-England states ? It is because there is an in 
herent and intrinsic cause at work, which will produce its efliect 
under all circumstances. In the free black, the principle of idle- 
ness and dissipation triumphs over that of accumulation and the de- 
sire to better our condition; the animal part of the man gains the 
victory jjver the moral ; andJbe consequently prefers sinking down 
into the listless inglorious repose of the brute creation, to rising 
to that energetic activity which can only be generated amid the 
multiplied, refined and artificial wants of civilized society. The 
very conception which nine slaves in ten have of liberty, is that of 
idleness and sloth with the enjoynjent of plenty ; and we are not to 
wonder that they should hasten to practice upon their theory so 
soon as liberated. But the experiment has been sufficiently tried 



93 

to prove most conclusively that the free black will work nowhere 
except by compulsion. 

St. Doraingo is often spoken of by philanthropists and schemers; 
the trial has iliore been made upon a scale snfiiciently grand to 
test our opinions,, and we are perfectly willing to abide the result 
of the experiment. 

The main purpose of the mission of Consul General M'Kenzie 
to Hayti, by the British government, was to clear up this very 
question. We have made every exertion to procure the very 
valuable notes of that gentleman on Hayti, but have failed: we 
are therefore obliged to rely upon the eighty-ninth number of the 
London Quarterly, in one article of which, mention is made of 
the result of M'Kenzie's observations. " By all candid persons," 
says the Review, " the deliberate opinion vvliich tliat able man has 
formed from careful observation, and the whole tenor of the evi- 
dence he has furnished, will be thought conclusive. Such invinci- 
ble repugnance do the free negroes of jhat island feel to labor, that 
the system of the code rural of 1826, about the genuineness of 
which so much doubt was entertained a (e\v years ago, is described 
as falling little short of the compulsion to wliich the slaves had 
been subjected previous to their emancipation. 'The consequences 
of delinquency,' he says, 'are heavy fine and imprisonuieni, and the 
provisions of the law are as despotic as can well be conceived.' He 
afterwards subjoins: — ' Such have been the various modes for in- 
ducing or compelling labor for nearly forty years. It is next ne- 
cessary to ascertain as far as it is practicable, the degree of suc- 
cess which has attended each ; and the only mode with which I 
am acquainted; is to give the returns of the exported agricultural 
produce during the same period, marking, where it can be done, 
any accidental circumstance that may have had an influence.' He 
then quotes the returns at length, and observes — ' Tliere is one de- 
cided inference from the whole of these six returns, viz. the positive 
decrease of cane cultivation in all its branches — the diminution of 
other branches of industry, though not equally well marked, is 
no less certain, than that articles of spontaneous growth maintain, 
if not exceed, their former amount.' We ma}' further add, that 
even the light labor reqirired for trimming the planting coffee trees, 
has been so much neglected, that the export of coffee in 1830, 
falls short of that of 1829, by no less than 10,000,000 pounds." 
{See London (Quarterly Revieiv,JS"o.S9, Art. West India Q^uestion.) 

We subjoin here, to exhibit the facts asserted by Mr. M'Kenzie 
in a more striking manner, a tabular view of some of the principal 
exports from St. Domingo, during her subjection to France, and 
during the best years of the reigns of Toussaint, Dessalines, and 
Boyer,* upon the authority of James Franklin on the Present 
State of Hayti. 



* It is known that under Boyer there was a union of the Island under one govern- 
ment. 

13 



94 



Produce. 


French. 


Toussaint. 


Dessalines. 


Boyer. 


Sii-ar, 
Coffee, 
Cotton, 


1791. 
163,405,220 lbs. 
68,151,180 
6,286,126 


1S02. 
53,400,000 lbs. 
31,370,000 

• 4,050.000 


1804 
47,600,000 lbs. 
31,000,000 
3,000,000 . 


1822,,* 
552,541 lbs 
35,117,834 
891,950 



There has been a gradual diminution of the amount oftlie pro- 
ducts of Hayti since 1822. In 1825 the vvliole value of exports 
was about $8,000,000, more than $1,000,000 less than in 1822, 
and the revenue of the island v^ as not equal to the public expendi- 
ture. Is not this fair experiment for forty years, under more fa- 
vorable circumstances than any reasonable man had a right to an- 
ticipate, sufficient to convince and overwhelm the most sceptical as 
to the unproductiveness of slave labor converted into free labor? 

But the British colony at Sierra Leone is another case in point, 
to establish the same position. Evidence was taken in 1830 before 
a committee of the House of Commons. Captain Bullen, R. N. 
stated that at Sierra Leone they gave the blacks a portion of land 
to cultivate, and they cultivate just as much as will keep them and 
not an inch more. Mr. Jackson, one of the judges of the mixed 
commission court, being asked — " Taking into consideration the 
situation of Sierra Leone, and the attention paid by government 
to promote their comfort, what progress have they made towards 
civilization or the comforts of civilized life.^" makes this answer — 
" I should say very inadequate to the efforts which have been made 
to promote their comfort and civilization." Captain Spence, being- 
asked a similar question, replies—" I have formed a \eYy indiffer- 
ent opinion as to their progress in industry. I have not been able 
to observe that they seem inclined to cultivate the country farther 
than vegetables and things of that kind. They do not seem in- 
clined to cultivate for exportation. Their wants are very few, and 
they are very wild; and their wants are supplied by the little ex- 
ertion they make. They have sufficient to maintain them in cloth- 
ing and food, and these are all their wants." ♦ 

Our own colony upon the coast of Africa proves too the same 
fact. It has been fed slowly and cautiously with emigrants, and 
yet Mr. Ashmun's inlreaties to colonization-friends in the United 
States, to recollect that rice did not grow spontaneously in Africa, 
to send out laboring men of good character, &;c., but too conclu- 
sively show, in spite of the colored and exaggerated statements of 
prejudiced friends, the great difficulty of making the negroes work 
in even Liberia ;■]- and we have no doubt that if 6000 or 60,000 



* The other years give the returns for the French part of the Island, this for the 
Spanish and French, and ought therefore to be proportionabjy greater. 

t We understand from most undoubted authority, that Mr. Barbour, a negro gentle- 
man from Liberia, who lately visited the Virginia Springs for the purpose of re-estab- 
lishing his health, which had given way under the deleterious influence of an African 
climate, bears most unequivocal testimony to the idleness of the blacks in Liberia — thinks 
the statements which have been generally given of the colony greatly exaggerated — 
considers it a partial failure at least ; and laughs at the idea of its being made a recipient 
for the immense and rapidly increasing mass of our whole black population. 



95 

could be colonized annually in Africa, there would not be a more 
worthless and indolent race of people upon the face of the globe 
than our African colonies would exhibit. 

We have now, we think, proved our position that slave labor in 
an economical point of view, is far superior to free negro labor ; 
and have no doubt that if an immediate emancipation of the ne- 
groes were to take place, the whole southern country woui 1 be 
visited with an immediate general famine, from which the produc- 
tive resources of all the other states of the Union could not deli- 
ver them. 

It is now easy for us to demonstrate the second point in our ar- 
gument — thai the slave is not only economically but morally unfit 
for freedom. And first, idleness and consequent want, are of them- 
selves sufficient to generate a catalogue of vices of the most mis- 
chievous and destructive character. Look to the penal prosecu- 
tions of every countr}', and mark the situation of those who fall 
victims to the laws. And what a frightful proportion do we find 
among the indigent and idle classes of society! Idleness generates 
want — want gives rise to temptation — and strong temptation makes 
the villain. The most appropriate prayer for frail imperfect man, 
is, "lead us not into temptation." Mr. Archer of Virginia well 
observed in a speech before the Colonization Society, that " the 
free blacks were destined by an insurmountable barrier — to the 
want of occupation — thence to the want of food — thence to the 
distresses which ensue that want — thence to the settled deprivation 
which grows out of those distresses, and is nursed at their bosoms ; 
and this condition ivas not casualty hut fate. The evidence was 
not speculation in political economy — it was geometrical demon- 
stration." 

We are not to wonder that this class of citizens should be so de- 
praved and immoral. An idle population will always be worthless; 
and it is a mistake to think that they are onl}' worthless in the 
Southern States, where il is erroneously supposed the slavery of a 
portion of their race depresses them below their condition in the 
free states: on the contrary, we are disposed ratlier to think their 
condition better in the slave than the free states. Mr. Everett, in 
a speech before the Colonization Society, during the present year, 
sa3's, "they (the free blacks) form in Massachusetts about one-se- 
venty-fifih part of the population ; one-sixth of the convicts in our 
prisons are of this class.^' The average number of annual con- 
victions in the state of Virginia, estimated b}^ the late Governor 
Giles, from the penitentiary reports, up to 1829, is seventy-one for 
the whole population — making one in every sixteen thousand of 
the -white population, one in every twenty-two thousand of the 
slaves, and one for every five thousand of the free colored people. 
Thus, it will be seen, that crimes among the free blacks are more 
than three times as numerous as among the whites, and four and 
a half times more numerous than among the slaves. But although 
the free blacks have thus much the largest proportion of crime to 



90 

answer for, yet the projiortion is not so great in Virginia as in 
Massachusetts. Althougli they are relatively to the other classes 
more numerous, making the one-thirtieth of the population of 
the state, not one-eighth of the whole number of convicts are from 
among them in Virginia, while in Massachusetts there is one-sixih. 
We may infer, then, they are not so degraded and vicious in Vir- 
ginia, a slave-holding state, as in' Massachusetts, a non-slave- 
holding state. But there is one fact to which we invite particularly 
the attention of those philanthropists who have the elevation of 
southern slaves so much at heart — that the slaves in Virginia 
furnish a much smaller annual proportion of convicts than the 
whites, and among the latter a very large proportion of the convicts 
consist of foreigners or citizens of other states. 

There is one disadvantage attendant upon free blacks, in the 
slave holding states, which is not felt in the non-slave-holding. In 
the former they corrupt the slaves, encourage them to steal from 
their masters by purchasing from them, and they are, too, a sort 
of moral conductor by which the slaves can better organize and 
concert plans of mischief among themselves. 

So far we have been speaking of the evils resulting from mere 
idleness ; but there are other circumstances which must not be omit- 
ted in an enumeration of the obstacles to emancipation. The blacks 
have now all the habits and feelings of slaves, the whites have 
those of masters; the prejudices are formed, and mere legislation 
cannot remove them. "Give me," said a wise man, "the forma- 
tion of the habits and manners of a people, and I care not who 
makes the laws." Declare the negroes of the South free to-mor- 
row, andvain will be your decree until you have prepared them for it; 
you depress, instead of elevating. The law would, in every point 
of view, be one of the most cruel and inhumane which could pos- 
sibly be passed. The law would make them freemen, and custom 
or prejudice, we care not which you call it, would degrade them 
to the condition of slaves ; and soon should vve see, that " it is 
happened unto theni, according to the true proverb, the dog is 
turned to his own vomit ae,ain, and the sow that was washed to 
her wallowing in the mire." " ^e quid nimis,'^ should be our 
maxim ; and we must never endeavor to elevate beyond what cir- 
cumstances will allow. It is better that each one should remain in 
society in the condition in which he has been born and trained, 
and not to mount too fast without preparation. If a Virginia or 
South Carolina farmer wished to make his overseer perfectly mise- 
rable, he could not belter do it, than by persuading him that he was 
not only a freeman, but a jjolished gentleman likewise, and conse- 
quently, induce him to enter his drawing room. He would soon 
sigh for the fields, and less polished but more suitable companions. 
Hence, in the southern states the condition of the free blacks is 
better than in the northern ; in the latter he is told that he is a 
freeman and entirely equal to the white, and prejudice assigns to 
him a degraded station — light is furnished him by which to view 



97 

the Interior of the fairy palace which is fitted up for him, and cus- 
tom expels liiin from it, after the law has told him it was his. He 
consequently leads a life of endless mortification and disap- 
pointment. Tantalus like, he has frequently the cup to his lips, 
and imperious custom dashes it nntasted from him. In the south- 
ern states, law and custom more generally coincide; the former 
makes no profession which the latter does not sanction, and conse- 
quently the free black has nothing to grieve and disappoint him. 

We have already said, in the course of this review, that if we 
were to liberate the slaves, we could not, in fact, alter their condi- 
tion — they would still be virtually slaves; talent, habit, and 
wealth, would make the white the master still, and the emancipa- 
tion would only have the tendency to deprive him of those sympa- 
thies and kind feelings for the black which now characterize him. 
Liberty has been the heaviest curse to the slave, when given too 
soon; we have already spoken of the eagerness and joy with 
which the negroes of Mr. Steele, in Barbadoes, returned to a 
state of slavery. The east of Europe affords hundreds of similar 
instances. In 1791, Stanislaus Augustus, preparing a hopeless 
resistance to the threatened attack of Russia, in concert with the 
states, gave to Poland a constitution which established the com- 
plete personal freedom of the peasantr}^ The boon has never 
been recalled, and what was the consequence? " Finding," (says 
Jones, in his volume on Rents,) " their dependence on their pro- 
prietors for subsistence remained undiminished, the peasants showed 
no very grateful sense of the boon bestowed upon ihem ; they 
feared they should now be deprived of all claim upon the proprie- 
tors for assistance, when calamity or infirmity overtook them. It 
is only since they have discovered that the connexion between them 
and the owners of the estates on which they reside is little altered 
inpractice, and that their old masters very generally continue, from 
expediency or humanity, the occasional aid the}^ formerly lent 
them, that they have become reconciled to their new character of 
freemen." " The Polish boors are, therefore, in fact still slaves,'** 
says Burnett, in his " View of the Present State of Poland," *' and 
relatively to their political existence, absolutely subject to the will 
of their lord as in all the barbarism of the feudal times." — "I 
was once on a short journey with a nobleman, when we stopped 
to bait at a farm-house of a village. The peasants got intelli- 
gence of the presence of their lord, and assembled in a body of 
twenty or thirty to prefer a petition to him. I was never more 
struck with the appearance of these poor wretches, and the con- 
trast of their condition with that of their master; I stood at a dis- 
tance, and perceived that he did not yield to their supplication. 
When he dismissed them, I had the curiosity to inquire tiie object 
of their petition; and he replied, that they had begged for an in- 
creased allowance of land, on the plea that what they had was insuf- 
ficient for their support. He added, 'I did not grant it them because 
their present allotment is the usual quantity, and as it has sufficed hilh- 



98 

erto, so 1 know it will in time to come. Besides,' said lie, 'if I 
eive them more, J well know that it will not in reality better their 
circumstances.' Pohind does not Airnisli a man of more humanity 
than the one who rejected (his apparently reasonable petition ; but 
it must be allowed that he had reasons for what he did. Those 
degraded and wretched being's, instead of hoarding the small sur- 
plus of their absolute necessaries, are almost universally accus- 
tomed to expend it in that abominable spirit, which they call 
schnaps. Jt is incredible what quantities of this pernicious liquor 
are drunk by the peasant men and women. The first time I saw 
any of these withered creatures was at Dantzic. I was prepared, 
by printed accounts, to expect a siiiht of singular wretchedness ; 
but I shrunk involuntarily from the sight of the realitj'. Some 
involuntary exclamation of surprise, mixed with compassion, es- 
caped me ; a thoughtless and a feelingless person j[vvhich are about 
the same thing) was standing by, 'Oh, sir,' says he, ' you will find 
plenty of such people as these in Poland ; and you may strike them 
and kick them, or do what you please with them, and they will never 
resist you : they dare not.' Far be it from me to ascribe the feelings 
of this man to the more cultivated and humanized Poles ; but such 
incidental and thoughtless expressions betray but too sensibly the 
general state of feeling which exists in regard to these oppressed 
men." The traveller will now look in vain, throughout our slave- 
holding country, for such misery as is here depicted; and in spite 
of all the tales told bj' gossipping. travellers, he will find no master 
so relentless as the Polish proprietor, and no young man so 
"thoughtless" and "feelingless" as the young Pole above men- 
tioned. But liberate our slaves, and in a very few years we shall 
have all these horrors and reproaches added unto us. 

In Livonia, likewise, the serfs were prematurely liberated ; and 
mark the consequences. Von Halen, who travelled through Li- 
vonia in 1819, observes, "along the high-road through Livonia 
are found, at short distances, filthy public houses, called in the 
country Rhatcharuas, before the doors of which are usually seen a 
multitude of wretched carts and sledges belonging to the peasants, 
who are so addicted to brandy and strong liquors* that they spend 
whole hours in those places. Notliing proves so much the state of 
barbarism in which those men are sunk, as the manner in which 
they received the decree issued about this time. These savages, 
unwilling to depend upon their own exertions for support, made all 
the resistance in their power to that decree, the execution of which 
was at length intrusted to an armed force.'''' The Livonian pea- 
sants, therefore, received their new privileges yet more ungracious- 
ly than the Poles, though accompanied with the gift of property 
ajid secure means of subsistence, if they chose to exert themselves. 
By an edict of Maria Theresa, called, by the Hungarians, the 

* We believe, in case of an emancipation of our blacks, tliat drunkenness would be 
among them like the destroying angel. 



99 

ubarium, personal slavery and attachment to the soil were abolish- 
ed, and the peasants declared to be " homines liberce. transmigra- 
tionis ','''' and yet, says Jones, " the authority of the owners of the 
soil over the persons and property of their tenantry has been very 
imperfectly abrogated; the necessities of the peasants oblige them 
frequently to resort to their landlords for loans of food ; they be- 
come laden with heavy debts, to be discharged by labor.* The 
proprietors retain the right of employing them at pleasure, paying 
them, in lieu of subsistence, about one-third of the actual value of 
their labor; and lastly, the administration of justice is still in the 
hands of the nobles; and one of the first sights which strides a 
foreigner, on approaching their mansions, is a sort of low frame- 
work of posts, to which a serf is tied when it is thought proper to 
administer the discipline of the whip, for offences which do not 
seem grave enough to demand a formal trial." 

Let us for a moment revert to the black republic of Hayti, and 
we shall see that tiie negroes have gained nothing by their bloody 
revolution. Mr. Franklin, who derives his information fVom per- 
sonal inspection, gives the following account of the present slate 
of the island : — "Oppressed with the weight of an overwhelming 
debt, contracted without an equivalent, with an empty treasury, 
and destitute of the ways and means for supplying it; the soil al- 
most neglected, or at least very partially tilled ; without commerce 
or credit. Such is the present state of the republic ; and it seems 
almost impossible that, under the system which is now pursued, 
there should be any melioration of its condition, or that it can ar- 
rive at any very high state of improvement. Hence, there ap- 
pears every reason to apprehend that it will recede into irrecovera- 
ble insignificance, poverty, and disorder.^' (p. 265.) And the 
great mass of the Ha_)'tiens are virtually in a state of as abject 
slavery as when the island was under the French dominion. The 
government soon found it absolutely necessary to establish a sys- 
tem of compulsion in all respects as bad, and more intolerable, 
than when slavery existed. The Code Henri prescribed the most 
mortifying regulations, to be obeyed by the laborers of the island ; 
work was to commence at day light, and continue uninterruptedly till 
eight o^clock ; one hour was then allowed to the laborer to breakfast 
on the- spot ; at nine work commenced again and continued until 
twelve, ivhen two hours repose was given to the laborer ; at two he 
commenced again, and worked until night. All these regulations 
were enforced by severe penal enactments. Even Toussaint 
I'Ouverture, who is supposed to have had the welfiire of the ne- 
groes as much at heart as any other ruler in St. Domingo, in one 
of his proclamations in the ninth year of the French republic, 

=^ Almost all our free negroes will run in debt to the full amount of their credit. " I 
never knew a free negro," says an intelligent correspondent, in a late letter, "who 
would not contract delits, if allowed, to greater amount than he could pay; and those 
whom I have suffered to reside on my land, although good mechanics, have been gen- 
erally so indolent and improvident as to be in my debt at the end of the year, for pro- 
visions, brandy, &c-, when I would allow it." 



100 

peremptorily directs — " all free laborers, men and women, now in 
a state of idleness, and living in towns, villages, and on other planta* 
tions than ihose to which they belong, witli the intention to evade 
work, even those of both sexes who had not been employed in field 
labor since the revolution, are required to return immediately to 
their respective plantations." And in article seven, he directs, 
that " the overseers and drivers of every plantation shall make it 
their business to inform the commanding officer of the district in 
regard to the conduct of the laborers under their management, as 
well as those who shall absent themselves from their plantations 
without a pass, and of those who residing on the plantations shall 
refuse to work ; they shall be forced to go to the labor of the field, 
and if they prove obstinate, they shall be arrested and carried be- 
fore the military commandant, in order to suffer the punishment 
above prescribed, according to tiie exigence of the case, the pun- 
ishment being fine and imprisonment." And here is the boasted 
freedom of the negroes of St. Domingo; — the appalling vocabulary 
of " overseer," " driver," " pass," Stc, is not even abolished. 
Slavery to the government and its military officers is substituted 
for private slavery; the black master has stepped into the shoes of 
the white; and we all know that he is the most cruel of masters, 
and more dreaded by the negro than any of the ten plagues of 
Eg>'pt. We are well convinced, that there is not a single negro 
in the commonwealth of Virginia who would accept such freedom; 
and yet the happiest of the hun)an race are constantly invited to 
sigh for such freedom, and to sacrifice all their happiness in the 
vain wish. But it is not necessary further to multiply examples ; 
enough has already been said, we hope, to convince the most scep- 
tical of the great disadvantage to the slave himself, of freedom, 
when he is not prepared for it. It is unfortunate, indeed, that pre- 
judiced and misguided pliilanthropists so often assert as facts, what, 
on investigation, turns out not only false, but even hostile to the 
very theories which they are attempting to support by them. We 
have already given one example of this kind of deception, in re- 
lation to Mr. Steele. We'vvill now give another. 

"In the year 1760, the Chancellor Zainoj'ski," says Burnett, 
*' enfranchised six villages in the Palatinate of Masovia. This 
experiment has been much vaunted by Mr. Coxe, as having been 
attended with all the good effects desired ; and he asserts that the 
chancellor had, in consequence, enfranchised the peasants on all 
his estates. Both of these assertions are false. I inquired parti- 
cularly of the son of the present Count Zamoyski respecting these 
six villages, and was grifived to learn, that the experiment had com- 
pletely failed. The count said, that within a few years he had 
sold the estate; and added, I was glad to get rid of it from the 
trouble the peasants gave me. These degraded beings, on receiv- 
ing their freedom, were overjoyed at the}' knew not what, having 
no distinct comprehension of what freedom meant ; but merely a 



101 

rude notion that they may now do what they like.* They ran 
into every species of excess and extravag-ance which their circum- 
siances admitted. Drunkenness, instead of being occasional, be- 
came almost perpetual; riot and disorder usurped the place of 
quietness and industry ; the necessary labor suspended, the lands 
were worse cultivated than before ; the small rents required of 
them they were often unable to pay." (Burnett''s View of Po- 
land, p. 105.^ Indeed, it is a calamity to mankind, that zealous 
and overheated philanthropists will not sufler the truth to circu- 
late, when believed hostile to their visionary schemes. Such ex- 
amples as the foregoing ought to be known and attended to. They 
would prevent a great deal of that impatient silly action which 
has drawn down such incalculable misery, so frequently, npon the 
human family. " There is a time for all things," and nothing in 
this world should be done before its time. An emancipation of 
our slaves would check at once that progress of improvement, 
which is now so manifest among them. The whites would either 
gradually withdraw, and leave whole districts or settlements in 
their possession, in which case they would sink rapidly in the scale 
of civilization ; or the blacks, by closer intercourse, would bring 
the whites down to their level. In the contact between the civilized 
and uncivilized man, all history and experience show, that the 
former will be sure to sink to the level of the latter. In these 
cases it is always easier to descend than ascend, and nothing will 
prevent the facilis descensus but slavery. 

The great evil, however, of these schemes of emancipation, re- 
mains yet to be told. They are admirably calculated to excite 
plots, murders, and insurrections ; whether gradual or rapid in 
their operation, this is the inevitable tendency. In the former 
case, you disturb the quiet and contentment of the slave who is 
left unemancipated ; and he becomes the midnight murderer to 
gain that fatal freedom whose blessings he does not comprehend. 
In the latter case, want and invidious distinction will pronipt to re- 
venge. Two totally different races, as we have before seen, can- 
not easily harmonize together; and although we have no idea that 
any organized plan of insurrection or rebellion can ever secure for 
the black the superioritj', even when free,f yet his idleness will 
produce want and worthlessness, and his very worthlessness and 
degradation will stimulate him to deeds of rapine and vengeance ; 
he will oftener engage in plots and massacres, and thereby draw 
down on his devoted head the vengeance of the provoked whites. 
But one limited massacre is recorded in Virginia history; let her 
liberate her slaves, and every year you would hear of insurrections 
and plots, and every day would perhaps record a murder ; the 

* Precissly such a notion as that entertained by the slaves of this country and the 
West Indies. 

t Power can never be dislodged from the hands of the intelligent, the wealthy, and 
the courageous, by any plans that can be formed by the poor, the ignorant, and the 
habitually subservient ; history scarce furnishes such an example. 
14 



102 

melancholy tale of Southampton would not alone blacken the page 
of our history, and make the tender mother shed the tear of lior- 
ror over her babe as she clasped it to her bosom ; others of a 
deeper die uoiild thicken upon us ; those regions wiierc the bright- 
ness of polisiicd life lias dawned and brightened into full day, 
would relapse into darkness, thick and full of horrors, and in those 
dark and dismal hours, we might well exclaim, in the shuddering 
language of the poet — 

" Nox atra cava circumvolat umbra 
Cluis cladcm illius noctis, quis fiuiera fantlo 
Explicit? * * * * 

Urbs antiqua riiit, multos dominata per annos 
Pliirima pcrque vias sternuntur inertia passim 
. Corpora per que domos, et religiosa deorum 
Limrna. * + Crudelis ubique 
Luctus ubiquc pavor, et piurinia mortis imago." 

Colombia and Guatemala have tried the dangerous experiment 
of emancipation, and we invite the attention of the reader to the 
following dismal picture of the city of Guatemala, drawn by the 
graphic pencil of Mr. Dunn — "With Lazaroni in rags and fdth, 
a colored -population drunken and revengeful, her females licentious 
and her males shameless, she ranks as a true child of that ac- 
cursed city, which still remains as a living monument of the fulfil- 
ment of prophesy and the forbearance of God, the hole of every 
foul spirit, the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. The pure 
and simple sweets of domestic life, with its thousand tendernesses 
and its gentle aflections, are here exchanged for the feverish joys 
of a dissipated hour; — and the peaceful home of love is converted 
into a theatre of mutual accusations and recriminations. This 
leads to violent excesses ; men carry a large knife in a belt, ivomen 
one fastened in the garter. JVot a day jJfisses ivithout murder ; on 
fast days and on Sundays, the average number killed is from four 
to five. From the number admitted in the hospital of St. Juan 
de Dios, it appears that in the year 1827, near fifteen hundred 
were stabbed, of whom from three to four hundred died."* Thank 
Heaven no such scenes as these have yet been witnessed in our 
country. From the day of the arrival of the negro slaves upon 
our coast in the Dutch vessel, up to the present hour, a period of 
more than two hundred years, there have not perished in the 
whole southern country by the hands of slaves, a number of 
whites equal to the average annual stabbings in the city of Gua- 
temala, containing a population of 30,000 souls! ! "Nor is the 
freed African," says Dunn, "one degree raised in the scale — un- 
der fewer restraints, his vices display themselves more disgustingly ; — 
insolent and proud, indolent and a liar, he imitates only the vices 
of iiis superiors, and to the catalogue of his former crimes adds 
drunkenness and theft." Do not all these appalling examples but 
too eloquently tell the consequences of emancipation, and bid us 

•■ See Dunn's Sketclies of Guatemaln, in 1827 and 1S28, pp. 95, 9C, and 97. 



103 

well beware how we enter on any system which will be almost 
certain to bring down ruin and degradation on both the whites 
and the blacks ? 

But in despite of all the reasoning and illustrations which can 
be urged, the example of the northern states of our confederacy 
and the west of Europe aflbrd, it is thought by some, conclusive 
evidence of the facility of changing the slave into the freeman. 
As to the former, it is enough to say that paucity of numbers,* 
uncongenial climate, and the state of agriculture to the north, to- 
gether witii the great demand of slaves to the south, alone accom- 
plished the business. In reference to the west of Europe, it was 
the rise of the towns, the springing up of a middle class, and a 
change of agriculture, which gradually and silently efiected the 
emancipation of the slaves, in a great measure through the opera- 
tion of the selfish principle itself. Commerce and manufactures 
arose in the western countries, and with them sprang up a middle 
class of freemen, in the cities and the country too, which gradually 
and imperceptibly absorbed into its body all the slaves. But for 
this middle class, which acted as the absorbent, the slaves could not 
have been liberated with safety or advantage to either parly. 
Now, in our southern country, there is no body of this kind to 
become the absorbent, nor are we likely to have such a body, un- 
less we look into tiie vista of the future, and imagine a time when 
the south shall be to the north, what England now is to Ireland, 
and will consequently be overrun with northern laborers, under- 
bidding the means of subsistence whicli will be furnished to the ne- 
gro : then perhaps such a laboring class, devoid of all pride and 
liabits of lofty bearing, may become a proper recipient or absorbent 
for emancipated slaves. But even then we fear the effects of dif- 
ference of color. The slave of Italy or France could be emanci- 
pated or escape to the city, and soon all records of his former state 
would perish, and he would gradually sink into the mass of free- 
men around him. But unfortunately the emancipated black car- 
ries a mark which no time can erase ; he forever wears the indeli- 
ble symbol of his inferior condition ; the Ethiopian .cannot change 
his skin, nor the leopard his spots. 

In Greece and Rome, and we imagine it was so during the feudal 
ages, the domestic slaves were frequently among the most learned, 
virtuous, and intelligent members of society. Terence, Phsedrus, 
Esop, and Epictetus were all slaves. They were frequently taught 
all the arts and sciences, in order that they might be more valuable 
to their masters. " Seneca relates," says Wallace in his Numbers 
of Mankind, "that Calvisius Labinus had many anagnostae slaves, 
or such as were learned and could read to their masters, and that 
none of them were purchased under £807 5s. lOd. According 
to Pliny, Daphnis the grammarian cost ,£5651 IO5. lOd. Ros- 

* "There are more free negroes and mulattoes, said JiidgcTucker in 1803, in Vir^ 
ginia alone, than are to be found in the four New-England states, and Vermont in ad- 
dition to tliem." (Tucker^s Blackslone, vol. 1. Part 2nd. p. 66, foot note.) 



104 

c'ius the actor would gain yearly £4036 9s. 2d. A morio, or 
fool, was sold for £lQl 9s. 2(/." (Wallace on the JVumbers of 
Mankind, page 142. J There was no obstacle, therefore, to the 
emancipation of such men as these (except as to the fool,) either 
on the score of color, intelligence, habits, or any thing else — the 
iody of freemen could readily and without difficult}' or danger 
absorb them. Not so now — nor ever will it be in all time to 
come, with our blacks. With these remarks, we shall close our 
examination of the plans by which it has been or may be proposed 
to get rid of slavery. If our arguments are sound, and reason- 
ings conclusive, we have shown tliey are all wild and visionary, 
calculated to involve the south in ruin and degradation : and we 
now most solemnly' call upon the statesman and the patriot, the 
editor and the philanthropist, to pause, and consider well, before 
they move in this dangerous and delicate business. But a few 
hasty and fatal steps in advance, and the work may be irre- 
trievable. For Heaven's sake then let us pause, and recollect, 
that on this subject, so pregnant with the safety, happiness, and 
prosperity of millions, we shall be doomed to realize the fearful 
motto, " nulla vestigia retrorsum." 

There are some who, in the plenitude of their folly and reck- 
lessness, have likened the cause of the blacks to Poland and 
France, and have darkly hinted that the . same aspirations which 
the generous heart breathes for the cause of bleeding, suffering 
Poland, and revolutionary France, must be indulged for tlie in- 
surrectionary blacks. And has it come at last to this? that the 
hellish plots and massacres of Dessalines, Gabriel, and Nat Tur- 
ner, are to be compared to the noble deeds and devoted patriotism 
of Lafayette, Kosciusko, and Schrynecki ? and we suppose the 
same logic would elevate Lundi and Garrison to Niches in the 
Temple of Fame, by the side of Locke and Rousseau. There is 
an abstn-dity in this conception, which so outrages reason and the 
most common feelings of humanity, as to render it unworthy of se- 
rious patient refutation. But we will, nevertheless, for a moment 
examine it, and we shall find, on their own principles, if sucli rea- 
soners have any principles, that their conception is entirely fal- 
lacious. The true theory of the right of revolution we conceive to 
be the following: no nien or set of men are justifiable in attempt- 
ing a revolution which must certainly fail; or if successful must 
produce necessarily a much worse state of things than the pre-exis- 
tent order. We have not the right to plunge the dagger into the 
monarch's bosom merely because he is a monarch — we must be 
sure it is the only means of dethroning a tyrant and giving peace 
and happiness to an aggrieved and suffering people. Brutus 
would have had no right to kill Caesar if he could have foreseen the 
consequences. If France and Poland had been peopled with a 
race of serfs and degraded citizens, totally unfit for freedom and 
self-government, and Lafayette and Kosciusko could have known 



105 

it, they would have been parricides Instead of patriots, to have rous- 
ed such ignorant and unhappy wretches to engage in a revolution 
whose object they could not comprehend, and which would inevita- 
bly involve them in all the horrors of relentless carnage and massa- 
cre. No man has ever yet contended that the blacks coidd gain 
their liberty and an ascendency over the whites by wild insur- 
rections ; no one has ever imagined that tliey could do more 
than bring down, by tiieir rash and barbarous achievements, the 
vengeance of the infuriated whites upon their devoted heads. 
Where then is the analogy to Poland and to France, lands of gene- 
rous achievement, of learning, and of high and noble purposes, and 
with people capable of self-government? We shall conclude this 
branch of our subject with the following splendid extract from a 
speech of Mr. Canning, which should at least make the rash legis- 
lator more distrustful of his specifics. 
\ " In dealing with a negro we must remember that we are dealing 
wirii a being possessing the form and strength of a man, but the 
intellect only of a child. To turn him loose in the manhood of 
his physical passions, but in the infancy of his. uninstrncted reason, 
would be to raise up a creature resembling the splendid fiction of 
a recent romance ; the hero of which construcls'a human form with 
all the physical capabilities of man, and with the thews and sinews 
of a giant, but being unable to impart to the work of his hands a 
perception of right and wrong, he finds too late that he has only 
created a more than mortal power of doing niischief, and himself 
recoils from the monster which he has made. J What is it we have 
to deal wiih.f" is it an evil of yestecday's origifff with a thing 
which has grown up in our time — of which we have watched the 
growth — measured the extent — and which we have ascertained the 
means of correcting or controlling? No, we have to deal with an 
evil which is the growth of centuries and of tens of centuries ; 
which is almost coeval with the deluge; which has existed under 
different modifications since man was man. Do gentlemen, in 
their passion for legislation, think, that after only thirty years dis- 
cussion, they can now at once manage as tiiey will the most un- 
manageable perhaps of all subjects? or do we forget, sir, that in 
fact not more than thirty years have elapsed since we first presum- 
ed to approach even the outworks of this great question ? Do we, 
in the ardor of our nascent reformation, forget that during the ages 
which this system has existed, no preceding generation of legisla- 
tors has ventured to touch it with a reforming hand ; and have we 
the vanity to flatter ourselves that we can annihilate it at a blow? 
No Sir, No! — If we are to do good it is not to be done by sudden 
and violent measures." Let the warning language of Mr. Can- 
ning be attended to in our legislative halls, and all rash and intem- 
perate legislation avoided. We will now proceed to the last divi- 
sion of our subject, and examine a little into the injustice and evils 
of slavery, with the view of ascertaining if we are really exposed 



106 

to those dangers and horrors which many seem to anticipate in the 
current of time. 

///.• Injustice and Evils of Slavery. 

1st. It is saicf slavery is wrong, in the abstract at least, and con- 
trary to the spirit of Christianity. To this we answer as before, 
that any question must be determined by its circumstances, and if, 
as really is the case, we cannot get rid of slavery without produ- 
cing a greater injury to both the masters and slaves, there is no rule 
of conscience or revealed law of God which can condemn us. 
The physician will not order the spreading cancer to be extirpated 
although it will eventually cause the death of his patient, because he 
would thereby hasten the fatal issue. So i/ slavery had commenced 
even contrary to the laws of God and man, and the sin of its intro- 
duction rested upon our hands, and it was even carrying forward 
the nation by slow degrees to final ruin — yet if it were certain that an 
attempt to remove it would only hasten and heighten the final ca- 
tastrophe — that it wag in fact a •' vulnus immedicabile" on the body 
politic, which no legislation could safely remove, then, we would 
not only, not be foufcd to attemjjt the extirpation, but we would stand 
guilty of a Ijigh offence in the sight of both God and man, if we 
should rashly rnake the effort. Bui the original sin of introduction 
rests not on our heads, and. we shall soon see that all those dread- 
ful calamities which. the false prophets of our day are pointing to, 
will never in all probability occur. With regard to the assertion, 
that slavery is e^ainst the jjjiri^; of Christianity, we are ready to 
admit the general assertion, but deny nJostk)o^tively that there is 
any thing in the Old or New Testament, which would go to show 
that slavery, when once introduced, ought at all events to be 
abrogated, or that the master commits any offence in holding 
slaves. The children of Israel themselves were slave holders, 
and were not condemned for it. All the patriarchs themselves 
were slave holders — Abraham had more than three hundred — Isaac 
had a " great store"* of them, — and even the patient and meek Job 
himself, had " a very great household.''^ When the children of Israel 
conquered the land of Canaan, they made one whole tribe " hewers 
of wood and drawers of water," and they were at that very time un- 
der the special guidance of Jehovah; they were permitted express- 
ly to purchase slaves of the heathens, and keep them as an inheri- 
tance for their posterity — and even the Children of Israel might be 
enslaved for six years. When we turn to the New Testament, we 
find not one single passage at all calculated to disturb the conscience 
of an honest slave holder. No one can read it without seeing and 
admiring that the meek and humble Saviour of the world in no in- 
stance meddled with the established institutions of mankind — he 

" And the man (Isaac) waxed great and went forward, and grew until he became 
very great ; for he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of 
servants." (Gen. chap. 26.) 



107 . 

came to save a fallen world, and not to excite the black passions 
of men and array them in deadly hostility against each other. 
From no one did he turn away ; his plan v\ as offered alike to all — • 
to the monarch and the subject — the rich and the poor — the master 
and the slave. He was born in the Roman world, a world in which 
the most galling slavery existed, a thousand times more cruel than 
the slavery in our own country — and yet he no where encourages 
insurrection — he nov/here fosters discontent — but exhorts always to 
implicit obedience and fidelity. What a rebuke does the practice 
of the Redeemer of mankind imply upon the conduct of some of 
his nominal disciples of the day, wlio seek to destroy the content- 
ment of the slaves, to rouse their most deadly passions, to break up 
the deep foundations of society, and to lead on to a night of dark- 
ness and confusion! "Let every man (says Paul,) abide in the 
same calling wherein he is called. Art thou called being a servant ? 
care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free use it rather." 
(l Corinthians, vii. 20, 21.) Again; " Let as manj' servants as are 
under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honor, that 
the name of God and his doctrines be not blasphemed; and they 
that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because 
they are brethren, but rather do them service, because they are 
faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach 
and exhort." (1 Tim. vi. 1, 2.) Servants are even commanded in 
Scripture to be faithful and obedient to unkind masters. "Ser- 
vants, (says Peter,) be subject to your masters with all fear; not 
only to the good and gentle, but to the froward. For what glory 
is it if when ye shall be bufieted for your faults ye take it patiently; 
but if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is 
acceptable with God." (l Peter-, ii. 18, 20.) These, and many 
other passages in the New Testament, most convincingly prove, 
that slavery in the Roman world was nowliere charged as a fault 
or crime upon the holder, and everywhere is the most implicit obe- 
dience enjoined.* 

We beg leave, before quitting this topic, to address a (ew remarks 
to those who have conscientious scruples about the holding of slaves, 
and therefore consider themselves under an obligation to break all 
the ties of friendship and kindred — dissolve all the associations of 
happier days, to flee to a land where this evil does not exist. We 
cannot condemn the conscientious actions of mankind, but we must 
be permitted to say, that if the assumption even of these pious 
gentlemen be correct, we do consider their conduct as very unphi- 
losopliical, and we will go further still, we look upon it as even im- 
moral upon their own principles. Let us admit that slavery is an 
evil, and what then ? why it has been entailed upon us by no fault of 
ours, and must we shrink from the charge which devolves upon us, 
and throw the slave in consequence into the hands of those who 
have no scruples of conscience — those who will not perhaps treat him 

'^ Sec Ephesiaiis, vi. 5, 0, Titus, ii. 9, 10. Piiilcinon. Colossians, iii, 22, andiv. 1. 



108 

so kindly? No! this is not philosophy, it is not morality ; we must re- 
collect that the unprofitable man was thrown into utter darkness. To 
the slave-holder has ivu]y been intrusted the five talents. Let him 
but recollect the exhortation of the Aposile — "Masters, give unto 
your servants that which is just and equal ; knovvingthat ye also have 
a master in Heaven;" and in the final day he shall have nothing 
on this score with which his conscience need be smitten, and he may 
expect the welcome plaudit — " Well done thou good and faithful 
servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee 
ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of the Lord." 
Hallam, in his History of the Middle Ages, says, that the greatest 
moral evil flowing from monastic establishments, consisted in 
withdrawing the good and religious from society, and leaving the 
remainder unchecked and unrestrained in the pursuit of their vici- 
ous practices. Woidd not such principles as those just mentioned 
lead to a similar result ? We cannot, therefore, but consider them 
as whining and sickly, and highly unphilosophical and detrimental 
to society. ^ 

2dly. But it is further said that the moral effects of slavery are 
of the most deleterious and hurtful kind ; and as Mr. Jefferson ha5 
given the sanction of his great name to this charge, we shall pro- 
ceed to examine it with all that respectful deference to which every 
sentiment of so pure and philanthropic a heart isjnstly entitled. 

"The whole commerce between master and slave," says he, "is 
a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions — the most 
unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submission 
on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it, for 
man is an imitative animal — this quality is the germ of education 
in him. From his cradle to his grave, he is learning what he sees 
others do. If a parent had no other motive, either in his own phi- 
lanthropy or self love, for restraining the intemperance of passion 
towards his slave, it should always be a sufficient one that his child 
is present. But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms, 
the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the 
same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst 
of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in the 
worst of tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious pecu- 
liarities."* Now we boldly assert that the fact does not bear Mr. 
Jefi'erson out in his conclusions. He has supposed the master in a 
continual passion — in the constant exercise of the most odious ty- 
ranny, and the child, a creature of imitation, looking;,on and learn- 
ing. But is not this master sometimes kind and indulgent to his 
slaves? does he not mete out to them, for faithful service, the re- 
ward of his cordial approbation? Is it not his interest to do it? 
and when thus acting humanely, and speaking kindly, where is the 
child, the creature of imitation, that he does not look on and learn ? 
We may rest assured, in this intercourse between a good master 

* Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. 



' 109 

and his servant, more good than evil mmj be taught the child, the 
exalted principles of morality and religion may thereby be some- 
times indelibly inculcated upon his mind, and instead of being rear- 
ed a selfish contracted being, with nought but self to look to — he 
acquires a more exalted benevolence, a greater generosity and ele- 
vation of soul, and embraces for the sphere of his generous actions 
a much wider field. Look to the slave holding population of our 
country, and you everywhere find them characterized by noble and 
elevated sentiment, by humane and virtuous feelings. We do not 
find among them that cold, contracted, calculating 5e//ts/me55, which 
withers and repels every thing around it, and lessens or destroys 
all the multiplied enjoyments of social intercourse. Go into our 
national councils, and ask for the most generous, the most disinte- 
rested, the most conscientious^ and the least unjust and oppressive 
in their principles, and see vvhetlier the slave holder will be past by 
in the selection. Edwards says that slavery in the West Indies 
seems to awaken the laudable propensities of our nature, such as 
" frankness, sociability, benevolence, and generosity. In no part 
of the globe is the virtue of hospitality more prevalent than in the 
British sugar islands. The gates of the planter are alvva3's open 
to the reception of his guests — to be a stranger is of itself a suffi- 
cient introduction." 

Is it not a fact, known to every man in the South, that the most 
cruel masters are those who have been unaccustomed to slavery. It 
is well known that northern gentlemen who marry southern heires- 
ses, are much severer masters than southern gentlemen.* And yet, 
if Mr. Jeflerson's reasoning were correct, they ought to be much 
milder : in fact, it follows from his reasoning, that the authority 
which the father is called on to exercise over his children, must be 
seriously detrimental; and yet we know that this is not the case; 
that on the contrary, there is nothing which so much humanizes 
and softens the heart, as this very authority ; and there are none, 
even among those who have no children themselves, so disposed to 
pardon the follies and indiscretion of youth, as those who have 
seen most of them, and sufiered greatest annoyance. There may 
be many cruel relentless masters, and there are unkind and cruel 
fathers too; but both the one and the other make all those around 
them shudder with horror. We are disposed to think that their ex- 
ample in society tends rather to strengthen, than weaken the prin- 
ciple of benevolence and humanity. 

Let us now look a moment to the slave, and contemplate his po- 
sition. Mr. Jefferson has described him as hating, rather than lov- 
ing his master, and as losing, too, all that amor palrice which cha- 
racterizes the true patriot. We assert again, that Mr. Jefferson is 
not borne out by the fact. We are well convinced that there is no- 

* A similar remark is made by Ramsay, and confirmed by Bryan Edwards, in re- 
gard to the West Indies. " Adventurers from Europe are universally more cruel and 
'Yiorose towards the slaves, than the Creole or native West Indian." {Hist of W. I. 
Book 4.. Chap. 1.) 

J 5 



110 

thing but the mere relations of husband and wife, parent and child, 
brother and sister, which produce a closer tie, than the relation of 
master and servant.* We have no hesitation in affirming, that 
throughout the whole slave liolding country, the slaves of a good 
master, are his warmest, most constant, and most devoted friends ; 
they have been accustomed to look up to him as their supporter, 
director and defender. Every one acquainted with southern slaves, 
knows that the slave rejoices in the elevation and prosperity of his 
master ; and the heart of no one is more gladdened at the success- 
ful debut of young master or miss on the great theatre of the 
world, than that of either the young slave who has grown up with 
them, and shared in all their sports, and even partaken of all their 
delicacies — or the aged one who has looked on and watched them 
from birth to manhood, with the kindest and most afiectionate soli- 
citude, and has ever met from them, all the kind treatment and gen- 
erous sympathies of feeling tender hearts. Judge Smith in his able 
speech on Foote's Resolutions in the Senate said, in an emergency 
he would rely upon his own slaves for his defence — he would put 
arms into their hands, and he had no doubt they would defend him 
faithfully. In the late Southampton insurrection, we know that 
many actually convened their slaves, and armed them for defence, 
although slaves were here the cause of the evil which was to be 
repelled. We have often heard slaveholders affirm, that they would 
sooner rely upon their slaves for fidelity and attachment in the hour 
of danger and severe trial, than on any other equal number of indivi- 
duals ; and we all know, that the son or daughter, who has been long 
absent from the paternal roof, on returning to the scenes of infancy, 
never fails to be greeted with the kindest welcome and the most sin- 
cere and heartfelt congratulations from those slaves among whom 
he has been reared to manhood. 

Gilbert Stuart, in his History of Society, says that the time when 
the vassal of the feudal age? was most faithful, most obedient, and 
most interested in the welfare of his master, was precisely when 
his dependance was most complete, and when, consequently, he re- 
lied upon his lord for every thing. When the feudal tenure was 
gradually changing, and the law was interposing between landlord 
and tenant, the close tie between them began to dissolve, and with 
it, the kindness on one side, and the affection and gratitude on the 
other, waned and vanished. From all this, we are forced to draw one 
important inference — that it is dangerous to the happiness and well 
being of the slave, for either the imprudent philanthropist to attempt 
to interpose too often, or the rash legislator to obtrude his regulat- 
ing edicts, between master and slave. They only serve to render 
the slave more intractable and unhappy, and the master more cruel 
and unrelenting. The British West India Islands form at this mo- 
ment a most striking illustration of this remark; the law has inter- 

- * There are hundreds of slaves in the Southern country, who will desert parents, wives 
or husbands, brother and sister, to follow a kind master — so strong is the tie ol' master 
and slave. 



Ill 

posed between master and servant, and the slave has been made idle 
and insolent, and consequently worthless ; a vague and irrational 
idea of liberty has been infused into his mind; he has become rest- 
less and unhappy ; and the planters are deserting the islands, because 
the very law itself, is corrupting and ruining the slave. The price 
of slaves it is said, since the passage of those laws, has fallen 50 
per cent, and the rapid declension of the number of slaves proves 
that their condition has been greatly injured, instead of benefitted. 
This instance is fraught with deep instruction to the legislator, and 
should make him pause. And we call upon the reverend clergy, 
whose examples should be pure, and whose precepts should be 
fraught with wisdom and prudence, to beware, lest in their zeal 
for the black, they suffer too much of the passion and prejudice of 
the human heart to mingle with those pure principles by which 
they should be governed. Let them beware of "what spirit they 
are of." "No sound," says Burke, "ought to be heard in the 
church, but the healing voice of Christian charity. Those who 
quit their proper character, tQ assume what does not belong to 
them, are for the most part ignorant of the character they assume, 
and of the character they leave off. Wholly unacquainted with the 
world in which they are so fond of meddling, and inexperienced 
in all its affairs, on which they pronounce with so much confidence, 
they have nothing of politics but the passions they excite. Surely 
the church is a place where one day's truce ought to be allowed to 
the dissensions and animosities of mankind." 

In the debate in the Virginia Legislature, no speaker insinuated 
even, we believe, that the slaves in Virginia were not treated kind- 
ly ; and all, too, agreed that they were most abundantly fed ; and 
we have no doulot but that they form the happiest portion of 
our society. A merrier being does not exist on the face of the 
globe, than the negro slave of the United States. Eve7i Captain 
Hall himself, with his thick " crust of prejudice," is obliged to 
allow that they are happy and contented, and the master much less 
cruel than is generally imagined. Why then, since the slave is 
happy, and happiness is the great object of all animated creation, 
should we endeavor to disturb his contentment by infusing into 
his mind a vain and indefinite desire for liberty — a something which 
he cannot comprehend, and which must inevitably dry up the very 
sources of his happiness. 

The fact is that all of us, and the great author of the Declara- 
tion of Independence is like us in this respect, are too prone to . 
judge of the happiness of others by ourselves — we make self the 
standard, and endeavor to draw down every one to its dimensions — • 
not recollecting that the benevolence of the omnipotent has made 
the mind of man pliant and susceptible of happiness in almost 
every situation and employment. We might rather die than be 
the obscure slave that waits at our back, — our education and our 
habits, generate an ambition that makes us aspire at something- 
loftier — and disposes us to look upon the slave as unsusceptible of 



112 

iiappiness in his humble sphere, when he may indeed be much 
happier than we are, and have liis ambition too, — but his ambition 
is to excel all his fellow slaves in the performance of his servile du- 
ties — to please and to gratify his master— and to command the 
praise of all who witness his exertions. Let the wily philan- 
thropist, but come and whisper into the ears of such a slave, that 
his situation is degrading and his lot a miserable one — let him but 
light up the dungeon in which he persuades the slave that he is 
caged — and that moment, like the serpent that entered the garden 
of Eden, he destroys his happiness and his usefulness. We can- 
not, therefore, agree with Mr. Jeflerson, in the opinion that slavery 
makes the unfeeling tyrant and the ungrateful dependant ; and in 
regard to Virginia especially, we are almost disposed, judging 
from the official returns of crimes and convictions, to assert, with 
a statesman who has descended to his tomb, (Mr. Giles,) "that 
the whole population of Virginia, consisting of three castes — of 
free white, free colored, and slave colored population, is the 
soundest and most moral of any other, according to numbers, 
in the whole world, as far as is known to me." 

3dly. It has been contended that slavery is xmfavorable to a re- 
publican spirit : but the whole history of theworld proves that this 
is far from being the case. In the ancient republics of Greece and 
Rome, where the spirit of libe.rty glowed with most intensity', the 
slaves were more numerous than the freemen. Aristotle, and the 
great men of antiquity, believed slavery necessary to keep alive 
the spirit of freedom. In Sparta, the freeman was even forbidden 
to perform the offices of slaves, lest he might lose the spirit of inde- 
pendence. In modern times, too, liberty has always been more ar- 
dently desired by slave holding communities. "Such," says Burke, 
"were our Gothic ancestors; such, in our days, were the Poles; 
and such will be all masters of slaves who are not slaves them- 
selves." — " These people of the southern (American) colonies are 
much more strongly, and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, 
attached to liberty, than those of the northward." And from the 
time of Burke down to the present day, the southern states have 
always borne this same honorable distinction. Burke says,- " it is 
because freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of 
rank and privilege." Another, and perhaps more efficient cause 
of this, is the perfect spirit of equality so prevalent among the 
whites of all the slave holding states. Jack Cade, the Irish re- 
former, wished all mankind to be brought to one common level. 
We believe slavery, in the United States, has accomplished this, 
in regard to the whites, as nearly as can be expected or even desired 
in this world. The menial and low offices being all performed by 
the blacks, there is at once taken away the greatest cause of dis- 
tinction and separation of the ranks of society. The man to the 
north will not shake hands ftmiliarly with his servant, and converse, 
and laugh, and dine with him, no matter bow honest and respecta- 
ble he may be. But go to the south, and you will find that no 



113 

white man feels such inferiority of rank as to be unworthy of as- 
sociation with those around him. Color alone is here the badge of 
distinction, the true mark ofaristocracy, and all who are white are 
equal in spite of the variety of occupation. The same thing is 
observed in the West Indies. '-Of the character common to the 
white resident of the West [ndies, it appears to me," says Ed- 
wards, "that the leading feature is an independent spirit, and a 
display of conscious equality throughout all raidis and conditions. 
The poorest white person seems to consider himself nearly on a 
level witli the richest; and emboldened by tliis idea, approaches his 
employer with extended hand, and a freedom, which, in the coun- 
tries of Europe, is seldom displayed by men in the lower orders 
of life towards their superiors." And it is this spirit of equality 
which is both the generator and preserver of the genuiue spirit of 
liberty. 

4th!y. Insexuriiy of the whites, arising from plots, insurrections, 
^c, among the blacks. This is the evil, after all, let us say what 
we will, which really operates most powerfully upon the schemers 
and emancipating philanthropists of those sections where slaves 
constitute the principal propert}-. Now, if we have shown, as we 
trust we have, that tlie scheme of deportation is utterly impracti- 
cable, and that emancipation, with permission to remain, will pro- 
duce all these horrors in still greater degree, it follows that this evil 
of slavery, allowing it to exist in all its latitude, would be no argu- 
ment for legislative action, and therefore we might well rest con- 
tented with this issue ; but ^s we are anxious to exhibit this whole 
subject in its true bearings, and as we do believe that this evil has 
been most strangely and causelessly exaggerated, we have deter- 
mined to examine it ^ moment, and point out its true extent. It 
seen)s to us, that those who insist most upon it, commit the enor- 
mous error of lookijig upon every slave in the whole slave-holding 
country as actuated by the most deadly enmity to the whites, and 
possessing all that reckless, fiendish ten)per, which would lead him 
to murder and assassinate the moment the opportunity occurs. — 
This is far from being true; the slave, as we have already said, 
generally loves the master and his familj';* and few indeed there 
are, who can coldly plot the murder of men, women, and children ; 
and if they do, there are fewer still who can have the villainy to 
execute. We can sit down and imagine that all the negroes in the 
south have conspired to rise on a certain night, and murder all 
the whites in their respective families; we may suppose the secret 
to be kept, and that they have the physical power to exterminate; 
and yet, we say the whole is morally impossible. No insurrection 
of this kind can ever occur where the blacks are as much civilized 
as they are in the United States. Savages and Koromantyn slaves 
can commit such deeds, because their whole life and education 
have prepared them, and they glory in the achievement ; but the 

*We scarcely know a single family, in which the slaves, especially the domestics, 
do not manifest the most unfeigned grief at the deaths which occur among the whites. 



114 

negro of the United States has imbibed the principles, the senti- 
ments, and feelings of the while; in one word, he is civilized — at 
least, comparatively ; his vvhoje education and course of life are at 
war with such fell deeds. Nothing-, then, but the most subtle and 
poisonous principles, sedulously infused into his mind, can break 
his allegiance, and transform him into the midnight murderer. — 
Any man who will attend to the history of ihe Southampton mas- 
sacre, must at once see, that the cause of even the partial success 
of the insurrectionists, was the very circumstance that there was no 
extensive plot, and that Nat, a demented fanatic, was under the im- 
pression that heaven had enjoined him to liberate the blacks, and 
had made its manifestations by loud noises in the air, an eclipse, 
and by the greenness of the sun. It was these signs which deter- 
mined him, and ignorance and superstition, together with implicit 
confidence in Nat, determined a few others, and thus the bloody 
work began. So fearfully and reluctantly did they proceed to the 
execution, that we have no doubt but that if Travis, the first 
attacked, could have waked whilst they were getting into his house, 
or could have shot down Nat or Will, the rest would have fled, 
and the afi'air would have terminated in limine. 

We have read with great attention the history of the insurrec- 
tions in St. Domingo, and have no hesitation in aflirming, that to 
the reflecting mind, that whole history afl'ords the most complete 
evidence of the difficulty and almost impossibility of succeeding in 
these plots, even under the most favorable circumstances. It would 
almost have been a moral miracle, if that revolution had not suc- 
ceeded. The French revolution had kindled a blaze throughout 
the world. The society of the ^imis cles JVoirs, (the friends of the 
blacks,) in Paris, had educated and disciplined many of the mulat- 
toes, wlio were almost as numerous as the whites in the island. — 
The National Assembly, in its mad career, declared these midat- 
toes to be equal in all respects to the whites, and gave them the 
same privileges and immunities as the wliites. During the ten 
years, too, immediately preceding the revolution, more than 200,000 
negroes were imported into the island from Africa. It is a well 
known fact, that newly imported negroes, are always greatly more 
dangerous than those born among us; and of those importations a 
very large proportion consisted of Koromantyn slaves, from the 
Gold Coast, w ho have all the savage ferocity of the North Ameri- 
can Indian.* And lastly, the whites themselves, disunited and 
strangely inharmonious, would nevertheless have suppressed the 
insurrections, although the blacks and mulattoes were nearly fif- 
teen-fold their numbers, if it had not been for the constant and too 
fatal interference of France. The great sin of that revolution rests 

*It was the Koromaiityns who brought about the insurrection in Jamaica in 1760. — 
They are a very hardy race ; and the Dutch, who area calculating, money-making peo- 
ple, and withal the most cruel masters in the world, have generally preferred these 
slaves, because they might he forced to do most work ; but the consequence of their ava- 
rice has been, that they have been more cursed with insurrections than any other peo- 
ple in the West Indies. 



115 

on the JVational Assembly, and should be an awful warning to 
every legislature to beware of too much tampering witii so deli- 
cate and difficult a subject as an alteration of the fundamental rela- 
tions of society. 

But tiiere is another cause which will render the success of the 
blacks for ever impossible in the south, as long as slavery exists. 
It is, that, in modern times especially, wealth and talent must ever 
rule over mere physical force. During the feudal ages, the vas- 
sals never made a settled concerted attempt to throw off the yoke 
of the lord or landed proprietor ; and the true reason was, they had 
neither property nor talent, and consequently the power, under 
these circumstances, could be placed no where else than in the 
hands of the lords; but so soon as the tiers etat arose, with com- 
merce and manufactures, there was something to struggle for, and 
the crise des revolutior.s, (the crisis of revolutions.) was the conse- 
quence. No connected, persevering, and well concerted move- 
ment, ever takes place, in modern times, unless for the sake of 
property. Now, the property, talent, concert, and we may add 
habit, are all with the whites, and render their continued superi- 
ority absolutely certain, if they are not meddled with, no matter 
what may be the disproportion of numbers. We look upon these 
insurrections in the same light that we do the murders and rob- 
beries which occur in society, and in a slave-holding state, they 
are a sort of substitute for the latter ; the robbers and murder- 
ers in what are called free states, are generally the poor and 
needy, who rob for money ; negro slaves rarely murder or rob for 
this purpose; they have no inducement to do it — the fact is, the 
whole capital of the south is pledged for their maintenance. The 
present Chief Magistrate of Virginia has informed us that he 
has never known of but one single case in Virginia where negroes 
murdered for the sake of money. Now, there is no doubt but that 
the common robberies and murders for money, take off, in the ag- 
gregate, more men, and destroy more property, than insurrections 
among the slaves ; the former are the result of fixed causes eter- 
nallij at work, the latter of occasional causes which are rarely, 
very rarely, in action. Accordingly, if we should look to the 
whole of our southern population, and compare the average num- 
ber of deaths, by the hands of assassins, with the numbers else- 
where, we would be astonished to find them perhaps as few or 
fewer than in any other population of equal amount on the globe. 
In the city of London there is, upon an average, a murder or a 
house-breaking and robbery every night in the year, which is 
greater than the amount of deaths by murders, insurrections, &,c., 
in our whole southern country; and yet the inhabitant of London 
walks the streets and sleeps in perfect confidence, and why should 
not we who are in fact in much less danger?* These calamities 

*We wish that accurate accounts could be pubHshed of all the deaths which had 
occm-red from iiisnrrections in the United States, West Indies, and South America, 
since the establishment of slavery ; and that these could be compai-ed to the whole 
popiilation that have lived since that epocli, and the number of deaths which occiur in 



116 

sn London, very properly give rise to the establishment of a po- 
lice, and the adoption of precautionary measures ; -and so they 
should in our country, and every where else. And if the Virginia 
Legislature had turned its attention more to this subject during its 
last session, we think, with all due deference, it would have re- 
dounded much more to the advantage of the state than the intem- 
perate discussion which Was gotten up. 

But it is agreed on almost all hands, that the danger of insurrec- 
tion now is not very great; but a time must arrive, it is supposed 
— by many, when the dangers will infinitely increase, and either the 
■^ one or the other race must necessarily be exterminated. " I do 
believe," said one in the Virginia Legislature, " and such must be 
the judgment of every reflecting man, that unless something is 
done in time to obviate it, the day must arrive when scenes 
of inconceivable horror must inevitably occur, and one of these 
two races of human beings will have their throats cut by the 
other." Another gentleman anticipates the dark day when a 
negro legislature would be in session in the capital of the Old 
Dominion! Mr. Cla}', too, seems to be full of gloomy antici- 
pations of the future. In his colonization speech of 1S30, he says, 
" Already the slaves may be estimated at two millions, and the free 
population at ten; the former being in the proportion of one to five 
of the latter. Their respective numbers will probably double in pe- 
riods of thirty-three years. In the year 1863, the number of the 
whites will probably be twenty, and of the blacks four millions. — 
Li 1896, forty and eight; and in the year 1929, about a century, 
eighty and sixteen millions. What mind is sufficiently extensive 
in its reach — what nerve sufficiently strong — to contemplate this 
vast and progressive augmentation, without an awful foreboding 
of the tremendous consequences!" If these anticipations are true, 
then may we, in despair, quietly sit down by the waters of Baby- 
lon, and weep over our lot, for we can never remove the blacks. — 
'^H<zret lateri lethalis arvndo.'''' 

But we have none of these awful forebodings. We do not look 
to the lime when the throats of one race must be cut by the other; 
on the contrary, we have no hesitation in affirming, and we think 
we can prove it too, that in 1929, taking Mr. Clay's own statis- 
tics, we shall be much more secure from plots and insurrections, 
than we are at this mon)ent. It is an undeniable fact, that in the 
increase of population, the power and security of the dominant 
party always increase much more than in proportion to the relative 
augmentation of their numbers. One hundred men can much 
more easily keep an equal number in subjection than fifty, and a 
million would rule a million more certainly and securely than any 
lesser number. The dominant can only be overturned by concert 
and harmony among the subject party, and the greater the relative 

otlier equal amounts of population, from popular sedition, robberies, &c., and we would 
be astonished to see what little cause we have for the slightest apprehension on this 
score. 



HI 

numbers on both sides, the more impossible does this concert on 
tlie part of the subjected become. A police, too, of the same re- 
lative numbers, is much more efficient amid a numerous population, 
than a sparse one. We will illustrate by example, which cannot 
fail to strike even the most sceptical. j\ir. Gibbon supposes that 
the hundredth man in any conmiunity, is as much as the people 
can aflord to keep in pay for the purposes of a police. Now sup- 
pose the community be only one liundred, then one man alone is 
the police. Is it not evident that the ninety-nine will be able at 
any moment to destroy him, and throw off all restraint? Suppose 
the community one thousand, then ten will form the police, which 
would have a ratlier better chance of keeping up order among the 
nine hundred and ninety, than the one in tlie one hundred, but still 
tiiis would be insujlicient. Let your community swell to one mil- 
lion, and ten thousand would then form the police, and ten thou- 
sand troops will strike terror in any city on the face of the globe. 
Lord Wellington lately asserted in the British Parliament, that 
Paris, containing a population of a million of souls, (the most bois- 
terous and ungovernable,) never required, before the reign of 
Louis Philip, more than forty-five hundred troops to keep it in th'e 
most perfect subjection. It is this very principle which ex- 
plains the fact so frequently noticed, that revolutions are effected 
much moi-e readily in small states than in large ones. The little 
republics of Greece underwent revolutions almost every month — 
the dominant part}' was never safe for a moment. The little states 
of modern Italy have undergone more changes and revolutions than 
all the rest of Europe together, and if foreign influence were with- 
drawn, almost every ship from Europe, even now, would bring the 
news of some new revolution in those states. If the standing army 
will remain firm to the government, a successful revolution in most 
large empires, as France, Germany, and Russia, is almost impos- 
sible. The two revolutions in France, have been successful, in 
consequence of the disaffection of the troops, who have joined the 
popular party. 

Let us apply these principles to our own case ; and for the sake 
of simplicity we will take a county of a mixed population of twenty 
thousand, viz: blacks ten thousand, and whites" as many: — the 
patrol which they can keep out, would, according to our rule, be 
two iunidred — double both sides, and the patrol would be four 
hundred, quadruple and it would be eight hundred — now a patrol 
of eight hundred would be much more efficient than the two hun- 
dred, though they were, relatively to the numbers kept in order, 
exactly the same; and the same principle is applicable to the pro- 
gress of population in the whole slave-holding country. In 1929, 
our police will be much more efficient than now, ifthe two castes 
preserve any thing like the same relative numbers. We believe it 
would be better for the whites that the negro population should 
double, if they added only one half more to their numbers, than that 
thev should remain stationary on both sides. Hence an insupera- 
16 



118 

ble objection to all these deporting schemes — they cannot dimi- 
nish the relative proportion of the blacks to the whites, but on the 
contrary increase it, while they check the augmentation of the po- 
pulation as a whole, and consequently lessen the security of the 
dominant part}'. We do not fear the increase of tlie blacks, for 
that very increase adds to the wealth of society, and enables it to 
keep up the police. This is tiie true secret of the security of the 
West Indies and Brazil. In Jamaica, the blacks are eight fold the 
whites; throughout tiie extensive empire of Brazil, they are three 
to one. Political prophets have been prophesying for fifty years 
past, that the day would speedily arrive, when all the West Indies 
would be in possession of the negroes ; and the danger is no greater 
now, than it was at the commencement. We sincerely believe the 
blacks never will get possession, unless through the mad interfe- 
rence of the mother countries, and even then we are doubtful whe- 
ther they can conquer the whites. Now, we have nowhere in the 
United States, the immense disproportion between the two races 
observed in Brazil and the West Indies, and we are not like to have 
it in all time to come. We have no data, therefore, upon which 
to anticipate that dreadful crisis, which so torments the imagina- 
tion of some. The little islands of the West Indies, if such crisis 
were fated frequently to arrive, ought to exhibit one continued se- 
ries of massacres and insurrections ; for their blacks are relatively, 
much more numerous than with us, and a small extent of territory 
is, upon the principle just explained, much more favorable to suc- 
j, cessful revolution than a large one. Are we not then, mostunphi- 
losophically and needlessly tormenting ourselves with the idea of 
insurrection. Seeing that tlie West India Islands, even, so much 
worse ofl' than ourselves in this particular, are nevertheless, but 
rarely disturbed. It is well known that where the range is suffi- 
ciently extensive, and the elements sufficiently numerous, the calcu- 
lation of chances maybe reduced to almost a mathematical certain- 
ty; thus, although you cannot say what will be the profit or loss 
of a jiarticular gambling house in Paris on any one night, A^et you 
may, with great accuracy, calculate upon the profits for a whole 
year, and with still greater'accuracy, for any longer period, as ten, 
twenty, or one hundred years. Upon the same principle, we spe- 
culate with much greater certainty upon masses of individuals, 
than upon single persons. Hence bills of mortality, registers of 
births, marriages, crimes, fee, become very important statistics, 
when calculated upon large masses of population, although they 
prove nothing in families or among individuals. Proceeding upon 
this principle, we cannot fail to derive the greatest consolation 
from the fact, that although slavery has existed in our country for 
the last two hundred years, there have been but three atttempts at 
insurrection — one in Virginia, one in South Carolina, and, we 
believe, one in Louisiana — and the loss of lives from this cause has 
not amounted to one hundred persons, in all. We may then calculate 
in the next two hundred years, upon a similar result, which is 



119 

incomparablj' smaller than the number which will be taken ofl' in 
free states by murders for the sake of money. 

But our population returns have been looked to, and it has 
been affirmed that they show a steady increase of blacks, which 
will finally carry them in all proportion beyond the wiiites, and 
that this will be particularly the case in Eastern Virginia. We 
have no fears on this score either: even if it were true, the danger 
would not be very great. With the increase of the blacks, we 
can afford to enlarge the police; and we will venture to say, that 
with the hundredth man at our disposal, and faithful to us, we 
would keep down insurrection in any large country on the face of 
the globe. But the speakers in the Virginia Legislature, in our 
humble opinion, made most unwarrantable inferences from the 
census returns. They took a period between 1790 and 1830, and 
judged exclusively from the aggregate results of that whole time. 
Mr. Brown pointed out their fallacy, and siiowed that there was 
but a small portion of the period in which the blacks had rapidly 
gained upon the whites, but during the residue they were most 
rapidly losing their high relative increase, and would, perhaps, in 
1840, exhibit an augmentation less than the whites. But let us 
go a little back — in 1740, the slaves in South Carolina, says Mar- 
shall, were three times the whites, the danger from them was greater 
then than it ever has been since, or ever will be again. There 
was an insurrection in that year, which was put down with the ut- 
most ease, although instigated and aided by the Spaniards. The 
slaves in Virginia, at the same period, were much more numerous 
than the whites. Now suppose sofwe of those peepers into futurity 
could have been present, would they not have predicted the speedy 
arrival of the time when the blacks, running ahead of the whites 
in numbers, would have destroyed their security? In 1763, the 
black population of Virginia was 100,000, and the white 70,000. 
In South Carolina, the blacks were 90,000, and the whites 
40,000. Comparing these with the returns of 1740, our prophets, 
could they have lived so long, might have found some consolation 
in the greater relative increase of the whites. Again, when we 
see in 1830, that the blacks in both states have fallen in numbers 
below the w hites, our prophets, were they alive, might truly be pro- 
nounced false. {See Holmes^s Annals, arid Marshall's Life of 
Washington, on this subject.) 

But vve will now proceed to examine more closely, the melan- 
choly inference which has been drawn from the relative advances 
of the white and black populations in Virginia, during the last 
forty years, and to show upon principles of an undeniable charac- 
ter, that it is wholly' gratuitous, withoi'.t any well founded data 
from which to deduce it. During the whole period of forty years, 
Virginia has been pouring forth emigrants more rapidly to the 
west than any other state in the union ; she has indeed been "the 
fruitful mother of empires." This emigration has been caused by 
the cheap fertile and unoccupied lands of the west, and by the op- 



120 

pressive action of the Federal Government, on the southern agri- 
cultural states. This emigration has operated most injuriously 
upon Virginia interests, and has had a powerful tendency to check 
the increase of tlie whites, without producing any thing like an 
equal effect on the blacks. A.s this is a subject of very great im- 
portance, we shall endeavor briefly to explain it. We have already 
said in the progi-ess of this discussion, that the emigration of a class 
of society, will not injure the comnumity, or check materially the 
increase of population, where a full equivalent is left in the stead of 
the emigrant. The largest portion of slaves sent out of Virginia, is 
sent through the operation of our internal slave trade; a full equi- 
valent being thus left in the place of the slave, this emigration be- 
comes an advantage to the state, and does not check the bhick po- 
pulation as much as at first view we should imagine, because it 
furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to Ins negroes, 
to encourage building, and tO' cause the greatest 'possible number 
to be raised, and thus it aflbrds a powerful stimulus to the spring of 
black population, which in a great measure counteracts the emi- 
gration. But when we come to examine into the elilux of the 
white population from our state to the west, we find a totally dlller- 
entcase presented to our view. The emigration of the white man 
not only takes a laborer from the state, but capital lilvcwise; so 
far, therefore, in this case, from the state gaining an equivalent for 
the emigrant, she not only loses him, but his capital also, and thus 
she is impoverished, or at least advances more slowly in the acqui- 
sition of wealth from a double cause — from the loss of both persons 
and capital. 

Let us examine a little more fully, the whole extent of the loss 
which the state thus suffers, and we shall find it immeasurably be- 
yond our hasty conceptions. In the first place, we cannot properly 
estimate the loss of labor by the number of emigrants, for we must 
recollect that the great majority of emigrants from among the 
whites, consists of males, who form decided!}' the more productive 
sex; and these males are generally between eighteen and thirty, 
precisely that period of life, at which the laborer is most produc- 
tive, and has ceased to be a mere consumer. Up to this period, 
we are generally an expense to those who rear us, and when we 
leave tlie state at this time, it loses not only the individuals, but all 
the capital, together with interest on that capital, which have been 
spent in rearing and educating. Thus, a father, perhaps, has been 
for years spending the whole profits of his estate in educating his 
sons, and so soon as that education is completed, they roam offto 
the west. The society of Virginia then loses both the individuals 
and the capital which had been spent upon them, without an equi- 
valent. Perhaps a young man, thus educated, if he were to remain 
among us, could make. by the exercise of his talents, two or three 
thousand dollars per annum. This is more than ten field laborers 
could make by their labor, and consequently, the loss of one such 
man as above described, is equal to the loss of ten common labo- 



121 

rers in a politico-economical view, and perhaps to more than one 
hundred in a moral point of view. We have made some exertion 
to ascertain the average annual emigration of whites from the 
state, but williout success ; supposing the number to be tliree thou- 
sand, and we have no doubt that it is far less than the true amount, 
we would err but little in saying that these three thousand would 
be at least equal to twelve thousand taken from among mere labo- 
rers. 

Now what is the eflect of this great abstraction from Virginia, 
of productive citizens and capital ? Why, most assuredly, to pre- 
vent the accumulation of weakh, and the increase of white popu- 
lation. You will find, on examination, that this emigration robs 
the land of its fair proportion of capital and labor, and thus in- 
jures our agriculture, and entirely prevents all improvement of 
our lands ; it sweeps off from the state the -circulating capital as 
soon as formed, and leaves scarcely any thing of value behind, but 
lands, nes^roes, and houses. All this has a tendency to check the 
increase of the whites, not only by tiie direct lessening of the 
population by emigration, but much more by paralyzing the spring 
of white population. The increase of the blacks, under these cir- 
cumstances, becomes much more rapid, and has served in part to 
counteract the deleterious effects springing from the emigration of 
whites. In this point of view, the augmentation of our black po- 
pulation should be a source of consolation, instead of alarm and 
despondency. Let us now see whether this state of things is for- 
ever to be continued, or whether there be not some cheering signs 
in the political horizon, portending a better and a brighter day for 
the Old Dominion, in the visia of the future. There are two 
causes evidently calculated to check this emigration of capital and 
citizens from Virginia, and to insure a more rapid increase of her 
white population, and augmentation of lier wealth. These are, 
first, the filling up of our vacant territory with population; and 
second, the completion of such a system of internal improvement 
in Virginia, as will administer to the multiplied wants of her peo- 
ple, and take off the surplus produce of the interior of the state 
to tlie great market of the world — the first dependent on time, and 
the second on the energ}' and enterprise of the state. 

1st. It is very evident, that as population advances and over- 
flows our western territory, all the good lands will be gradually 
occupied ; a longer and a longer barrier of cultivated and popu- 
lous region will be interposed between Virginia and cheap western 
lands, and with this onward march of population and civilization, 
emigration from the old states must gradually cease. The whole 
population of the union is now 13,000,000 ; in less than fifty years 
from this time, (a short period in the histor3' of nations,) we shall 
have 50,000,000 of souls — our people will then cease to be migra- 
tory, and assume that stability every where witnessed in the older 
countries of the world; and this result will be greatly accelerated, 
if the southern country shall, in the meantime, be relieved from 



122 

the blighting oppression of federal exactions. As this state of 
things arrives, the whites in Virginia will be found to increase more 
rapidly than the blacks ; and thus, that most alarming inference 
drawn from disproportionate increase of the two castes, for the last 
forty years, will be shewn in the lapse of time, to be a false vision, 
engendered hy fear, and unsupported by philosophy 'Aud^ fact. — 
We alread}' peiceive that the wliites, in the ratio of their increase, 
have been, for the last twenty years, gradually gaining on the 
blacks; thus, in 1790, east of the Blue Ridge, the whites were 
314,523, and the slaves 277,449 — in 1830, the proportions were, 
in the same district, wiiites 375,935, slaves 416,529 ; gain of the 
blacks on the whites, 77,398. " But when did this gain take place ? 
Between ISOO and 1810, the rate ofincrease of the whiles was only 
seven-tenths of one per cent., while that of the slaves was ele- 
ven per cent. From 1810 to 1820, the ratio of the increase of 
whiles was three per cent., and that of slaves was six per cent. — 
From 1820 to 1830, the ratio of increase of the whites was near 
eight per cent., and that of the slaves not quite nine per cent.;" and 
when we take into consideration the whole population of our slate, 
east and west of ihe Blue Ridge, we find that the whites have been 
gaining at the rate of 15 per cent, for the last ten years, wliile the 
slaves have been increasing at the rate often per cent, only — and 
thus is it we find that those very statistics which are adduced by 
tlie abolitionists, to alarm the timid, and operate on the imagina- 
tion of the unreflecting, turn out, upon closer scrutiny, to be of the 
most cheering and consolatory character, clearly demonstrating, 
upon the very principle of calculation assumed by the abolitionists 
themselves, that the condition of the whites is rapidly altering for 
the better, with the lapse of time. 

We will now proceed to point out the operation of the second 
cause, above mentioned — a judicious system of internal improve- 
ment in checking emigration to the west. It is well known, that in 
proportion to tiie facilities which are oflered to commerce, and the 
ease and cheapness with which the products of land may be con- 
veyed to market, so do the profits of agriculture rise, and with 
them, a general prosperity is diflused over the whole country — new 
products are raised upon the soil — new occupations spring up — old 
ones are enlarged and rendered more productive — a wider field is 
opened for the display of the energies of botii mind and body, and 
the rising generation are bound down to the scenes of their infan- 
cy, and the homes of their fathers: not by the tie ofaflection and 
association alone, but by the still stronger ligament of interest. — 
Sons who have spent in their education all the profits which a kind 
father has earned by hard industry on the soil, will not now be 
disposed to wring from his kindness the small patrimony which he 
may possess, and move off with the proceeds to the west ; but ge- 
neral prosperity will induce them to remain in the land which gave 
them birth, to add to the wealth and the population of the state, 
and to be a comfort and a solace to their aged parents in the de- 



123 

cline of their days. We do indeed consider internal improvement 
in Virginia, tiie great panacea, by which most of tlie ills which 
now weigh down the state n>ay be removed, and heakh and acti- 
vity communicated to every department of industry. 

We are happy to see that the Legislature of Virginia, during 
the last session, incorporated a company to complete the James 
river and Kanawlia improvements, and that the city of Richmond 
has so liberally contributed by her subscriptions, as to render the 
project almost certain of success. It is this great improvement 
which is destined to revolutionize the fiiiancial condition of the 
Old Dominion, and speed her on more rapidly in wealth and num- 
bers, than she has ever advanced before : the snail pace at which 
she has hitherto been crawling, is destined to be converted into the 
giant's stride, and this very circumstance, of itself, will defeat all 
the gloomy predictions about the blacks. The first eflect of the 
improvement will be to raise up larger towns in the eastern portion 
of the state.* Besides other manifold advantages which these 
towns will diffuse, they will have a tendency to draw into them 
the capital and free laborers of the north, and in this way to de- 
stroy the proportion of the blacks. Baltimore is now an exem- 
plification of this fact, which by its mighty agency is fast making 
Maryland a non-slave-holding state. Again, the rise of cities in 
the lower part of Virginia, and increased density of population, 
will render the division of labor more complete, break down the 
large farms into small ones, and substitute, in a great measure, 
the garden for the plantation cultivation : consequently, less slave 
and more free labor will be requisite, and in due time the aboli- 
tionists will find this most lucrative system working to their heart's 
content, increasing the prosperity of Virginia, and diminishing 
the evils of slavery, without those impoverishing effects which all 
other schemes must necessarily have. 

Upon the west particularly, the beneficial effects of a judicious 
system of improvement, will be almost incalculable. At this mo- 
ment the emigration from the western and middle counties of 
Virginia, is almost as great as from the eastern. The western por- 
tion of Virginia, in consequence of its great distance from market, 
and the wretched condition of the various communications leading 
through the state, is necessarily a grazing country. A grazing 
country requires but a very sparse population, and consequently', 
but small additions to our western population renders it redun- 
dant, and there is an immediate tendency in the supernumeraries to 

*Doct. Cooper of Columbia, whose capacious mind has explored every department 
of knowledge, and whose ample experience through a long life, has furnished liim with 
the most luminous illustrations and facts ; has most admirably pointed out in the 25th 
chapter of his Political Economy, the great advantages of large towns, and we have no 
doubt but that the absence of large towns in Virginia, has been one cause of the infe- 
riority of Virginia, tfl some of the northern states, in energy and industry. We are 
sorry that our limits will not allow us to insert a portion of "the chapter on the advan- 
tages of large towns, just referred to, and that we must content ourselves with a warm 
recommendation of its perusal. 



124 

emigration. A gentleman from the west, lately informed us that in 
his immediate neighborhood, he knew of seventy persons who had 
moved ofi' and many others were exceedingly anxious to go, but 
were detained because they could not dispose of their lands. The 
remedy for all this, is as glaring as the light of midday sun. Give 
to this portion of the state, the communications wliich they require. 
Let our great central improvement be completed, and immediately 
the grazing system will be converted into the grain growing, and 
the very first effect of sticking tiie plough into the soil, which has 
hitherto grown grass alone, will be an increased demand for labor, 
which will at once check the tide of emigration, so rapidly flowing 
on to tlie distant west — and agricultural profits will rise at once 50 
or 100 per cent. One of the most closely observant citizens of 
the west, has informed us, that he can most conclusively show, 
that if flour would command $ 3 00 a barrel on the farms in his 
neigiiborhood, the profits of raising grain would be double those 
of the grazing system. Here, then, is the true ground for unity 
of ac</o/i, between the eastern and western portions of Virginia: 
let them steadily unite in pushing forward a vigorous system of in- 
tern;d improvement. Under what a miserably short sighted and 
suicidal policy must the west act then, if it seriously urges the 
emancipation of our slaves. Tiie very first eflect of it will be, to stop 
forever, the great central improvement. Where is ihe state to get 
the money from, to cut canals and rail roads through her ter- 
ritory, and send out (tiausands besides to Africa? The very agi- 
tation of this most romantic and impracticable scheme, is calcu- 
lated to nip inthe bud, our whole system of internal improvements; 
and we can but hope that the intelligence of the west, will soon 
discover how very hostile this whole abolition scheme is to all its 
true interests, and will curb in their wild career, by the right of in- 
struction, those who would uproot the very foundations of society, 
if their schemes should ever be carried out to their full extent. 
We venture to predict, that, if these abolition schemes shall ever 
be seriously studied in Virginia, that there will be but one voice — 
but one opinion concerning them, throughout the state — that they 
are at war with the true interests of Virginia, in every quarter — in 
the west as well as the east. We hope then most sincerely, that 
those gentlemen who have been so perseveringly engaged in 
urging forward this great scheme of improvement, will not falter 
al the work is accomplished. We are well convinced that they 
are the true benefactors of the state — and they deserve well of the 
Republic — and at some day not very distant, they will have the con- 
solation of seeing that the moral efl'ects of this system, will be no 
less salutary than the physical. We hope, then, we have shewn, 
upon principles which cannot be controverted, that the experience 
of the last forty years in Virginia, need not fill us with apprehensions 
for the future. Time and internal improvement will cure all our 
ills, and speed on ihe Old Dominion more rapidly in wealth and 
prosperity. 



125 

Many are most willing to allow the foire of the preceding rea- 
soning, and to admit that there is no real danger to be appre- 
hended either now, or in future, from our blacks; and yet, they 
say there is a feeling of insecurity throughout the slave-holding 
country,. and this sense of insecurity destroys our happiness. Now, ^ 
we are most willing to admit that, after such an insurrection as 
that in Southampton, the public mind will be disturbed, and 
alarm and apprehension, will pervade the ronuntinity. But the 
fact proves that all this is of short, vnry short diiralion. We be- -j^ 
lieve that there was not a single citizen in Virginia, who felt any 
alarm from the negroes, previous to the Southampton tragedy, 
and we believe at this moment there are very iew who feel the 
slightest apprehension. We have no doubt, paradoxical as it may 
seem to some, but that the population of our slave-holding country, 
enjoys as much, or more conscious secnritv, tlian any other people 
on the face of the globe! You will find throughout the whole 
slave-holding portion of Virginia, and we believe it is the same 
in the southern states generally, that the houses are scarcely ever 
fastened at night, so as to be completely inaccessible to those 
without, except in towns. This simple fact, is demonstration com- 
plete, of the conscious security of our citizens, and liieir great con- 
fidence in the fidelity of the blacks. There is no has peupJe, no 
lower class, on tlie globe, among whom tlie life of man is so secure 
as ainong the slaves of America, for the}' rarely murder, as we have 
already seen, for the sake of money. A ^negro will rob your hen 
roost or 3a")ur sti/e,_ but it is rare indeed, tlKit he can ever be induced 
to murder you. Upon this subject we speak from experience. 
We have sojourned in some of the best regulated countries of Eu- 
rope, and we know that every where the man of property dares 
not close his eyes before every vvindow and door are barred againt 
intruders from without. And we believe, even in our northern 
states, these precautions are adopted to a much greater extent, 
than with us; and consequent!}', mark a much greater sense of iu- 
securit}' than exists among us. 

5thly, and lastly. Slave luhor is unproductive, and the dis- 
tressed condition of Virginia and the whole south is owing to this 
cause. Our limits will not allow us to investigate fully this asser- 
tion, but a very partial analysis will enable us to show that the 
truth of the general proposition upon which the conclusion is 
based, depends on circumstances, aud that those circumstances uu 
not apply to our southern country. The ground assumed by ^ 
Smith and Storch, who are the most able supporters of the doc- 
trine of the superior productiveness of free labor, is that each one 
is actuated by a desire to accumulate when free, and this desire 
produces much more efficient and constant exertions than can pos- 
sibly be expected from the feeble operation of fear upon the slave. 
We are, in the main, converts to this doctrine, but must be per- 
mitted to limit it by some considerations. :ii is very evident, 
when we look to the various countries iti which there is free labor 
17 



126 

alone, that a vast difference in its productiveness is manifested. 
The English operative we are disposed to consider the most pro- 
ductive laborer in the world, and the Irish laborer, in his imme- 
diate neighborhood, is not more than equal to the southern slave — 
the Spanish and even Italian laborers are inferior. Now, how are 
we to account for this great difference? It will be found mainly 
to depend upon the operation of two great principles, and seconda- 
rily upon attendant circumstances. These two principles are the 
desire to accumulate and better our condition, and a desire to in- 
dulge in idleness and inaclivit}'. 

We have already seen that the principle of idleness triumphed 
over the desire for accumulation among the savages of North and 
South America, among the African nations, among the blacks of 
St. Domingo, fcc, and nothing but the strong arm of authority 
could overcome its operation. In southern countries, idleness is 
very apt to predominate, even under tiie most favorable circum- 
stances, over the desire to accumulate, and slave labor, conse- 
quently, in such countries, is most productive. Again, staple- 
growing states are, acteris paribus, more favorable to slave labor 
than manufacturing states. Slaves in such countries may be 
worked in bodies under the eye of a superintendent, and made to 
perform more labor than freemen. There is no instance of the 
successful cultivation of the sugar cane by free labor. St. Domingo, 
once the greatest sugar-growing island in the world, makes now 
scarcely enough for her own supply. We very much doubt even 
whether slave labor be not best for all southern agricultural coun- 
tries. Humboldt, in his New Spain, says he doubts whether there 
be a plant on the globe so productive as the banana, and yet these 
banana districts, strange to tell, are the poorest and most miserable 
in all South America, because the peeple only labor a little to 
support themselves, and spend the rest of their time in idleness. 
There is no doubt but slave labor would be the most productive 
kind in these districts. We doubt whether the extreme south of 
the United States, and the West India islands, would ever have 
been cultivated to the same degree of perfection as now, by any 
other tiian slave labor. The history of colonization furnishes no 
example whatever, of the transplantation of whites 'to very warm 
or tropical latitudes, without signal deterioration of character, at- 
tended with an unconquerable aversion to labor. And it would 
seem that nothing but slavery can remedy this otherwise inevitable 
tendency. The fact, that to the north, negro slavery has every 
where disappeared, whilst to the south, it has maintained its 
ground triumphantly against free labor, is of itself conclusive of 
the superior productiveness of slave labor in southern latitudes. 
We believe that Virginia and Maryland are too far north for slave 
labor, but all the states to the south of these are perhaps better 
adapted to slave labor than free. 

But it is said, with the increasing density of population, free 
labor becomes cheaper than slave, and finally extinguishes it, as 



127 

has actually happened in the West of Europe; this we are ready 
to admit, but tliink it was owing to a change in the tillage, and the 
rise of manufactures and commerce, to «liich free labor alone is 
adapted. As a proof of this, we can cite the populous empire of 
China, and the eastern nations generally, where slave labor has 
stood its ground against free labor, although the population is 
denser, and the proportional means of subsistence more scanty 
than any where else on the Hice of the globe. How is this to be 
accounted for, let us ask? Does it not prove, that under some 
circumstances, slave labor is as productive as free? We would as 
soon look to China to test this principle, as any other nation on earth. 
The slave districts in China, according to the report of travel- 
lers, are determined by latitude and agricultural products. The 
wheat growing districts have no slaves, but the rice, cotton, and 
sugar growing districts situated in warm climates, have all of them 
slaves, aflbrding a perfect exemplification of the remarks above 
made. Again, looking to the nations of antiquity, if the Scrip- 
tural accounts are to be relied on, the number of inhabitants in 
Palestine must have been more than 6,000,000; at which rate, 
Palestine was at least, when taking into consideration her limited 
territory, five times as populous as England.* Now we know 
that the tribes of Judah and Israel both used slave labor, and 
it must have been exceedingly productive, for we find the two 
Kings of Judah and Israel bringing into the field no less tiian 
1,200,000 chosen men ;t and Jehosaphat, the son of Asa, had an 
army consisting of 1, 160,000 ;j: and what a prodigious force must 
he have commanded, had he been sovereign of all the tribes! 
Nothing but the most productive labor could ever have supported 
the immense armies whicli were then led into the field. 

Wallace tliinks that ancient Egypt must have been thrice as 
populous as England; and yet so valuable was slave labor, that 
ten of the most dreadful plagues tliat ever aflected mankind, could 
not dispose the selfish heart of Pharoah to part with his Israelitish 
slaves; and when he lost them, Egypt sunk, never to rise to her 
pristine grandeur again. Ancient Italy too, not to mention Greece, 
was exceedingly populous, and perhaps Rome was a larger city 
than any of modern times — and yet slave labor supported these 
dense populations, and even rooted out free labor. AH th.ese ex- 
amples prove sufliiciently, that under certain circumstances, slave 
is as productive, and even more productive, than free labor. 

But the southern states, and particularly Virginia, have been 
compared with the non-slave-holding states, and pronounced far' 
behind them in the general increase of wealth and population ; 
and this, it is said, is a decisive proof of the inferiority of slave 
labor in this country. We are sorry we have not the space for a 
thorough investigation of this assertion, but we have no doubt of 



* See Wallace on the Numbers of Mankind, p. 52, Edinb. Edit, 
1 2 Chron. xiii. 3. J 2 Chron. xvii. 



128 

its fallacy. Look to the progress of the colonies before the estab- 
lishment of the federal government, and you find the slave-holding 
were llie most prosperous and tlie most wealthy. The north 
dreaded the formation of the confederated government, precisely 
because of its poverty. This is an historic fact. It stood to the 
south, as Scotland did to England at the period of tiie Union ; 
and feared lest the south, by its superior wealth, supported by 
this very slave labor, which, all of a sudden, has become so un- 
productive, should abstract the little wealth which it possessed. 
Again, look to the exports at the present time of the whole confed- 
eracy, and what do we see— ^why, that one-third of the states, and 
those slave-holding too, furnish two-thirds of the whole exports ! ! 
But although tliis is now the case, we are still not prosperous. 
Let us ask then two simple questions; 1st. How came the south, 
for two hundred years, to prosper with her slave labor, if so very 
unproductive and ruinous? and 2dly. How does it happen, that 
her exports are so great even now, and that her prosperity is 
nevertheless on the decline? Painful as the accusation may be to 
the heart of the true patriot, we are forced to assert that the un- 
equal operation of the federal government has principally achieved 
it. The north has found that it could not compete with the 
south in agriculture, and has had recourse to the system of 
duties, for the purpose of raising up the business of manufac- 
tures. This is a business in which the slave labor cannot com- 
pete with northern, and in order to carry this system through, 
a coalition has been formed with the west, by which a large portion 
of the federal funds are to be spent in that quarter for internal 
improvements. These duties act as a discouragement to southern 
industry, which furnishes the exports by which the imports are pur- 
chased, and a bouniy to northern labor, and the partial disburse- 
ments of the funds increase the pressure on the south to a still 
greater degree. It is not slave labor then which has produced our 
depression, but it is the action of the federal government which is 
ruining slave labor. 

There is at this moment an exemplification of the d^^structive 
influence of government agency in the West Indies. The British 
West India Islands are now in a more depressed condition than any 
others, and both the Edinburgh and London Quarterly Reviews 
charge their depression upon the regulations, taxing sugar, coffee, 
&;c., and preventing them, at the same time, from purchasing 
bread stuffs, he. from the United States, which can be furnished 
by them cheaper than from any other quarter. Some of the phi- 
lanthropists of Great Britain cry out it is slavery which has done 
it, and the slaves must be liberated; but they are at once refuted 
by the fact, that never has island flourished more rapidly than Cuba, 
in their immediate neighborhood. And Cuba flourishes because 
she enjoys free trade, and hasprocured of late plenty of slaves. It 
is curious that the population of this island has, for the last thirty 
years, kept pace with that of Pennsylvania, one of the most flourishing 



129 

of the states of the confederacy, and her wealth has increased in a 
stiil greater ratio.* Look again to Brazil, perhaps, at this mo- 
ment, the most prosperous state of South America, and we find her 
slaves three times more numerous than the freemen. INIr. Brough- 
am, in hre Colonial Policy, says that Cayenne never flourished as 
long as she was scantily supplied with slaves, but her prosperity 
commenced the moment she was supplied with an abundance of 
this unproductive labor. Now we must earnestly ask an explana- 
tion of these phenomena, upon the principle that slave labor is un- 
productive. 

There are other causes too, which have operated in concert with 
the federal government, to depress the south. The climate is un- 
healthy, and upon an average, perhaps one-tenth of the labor is 
suspended during the sickly months. There is a great deal of 
travelling too, from this cause, lo the north, which abstracts the 
capital from the south, and spreads it over the north. The emigra- 
tion from the south to the west, as we have before seen, is very great 
and very injurious ; and added to all this, tlie standard of comfort 
is much higher in the slave holding than the non-slave-iiolding 
states. f All these circumstances together, are surely sufficient to 
account for the depressed condition of the south, without asserting 
that slave labor is valueless. But we believe all other causes as 
•'dust in "the balance," when compared with the operation of the 
federal government. 

How does it happen that Louisiana, with a greater proportional 
number of slaves than any other state in the Union, with the most 
insalubrious climate, with one-fourth of her white population spread 
over the more northern states in the sickly season, and with a higher 
standard of comfort than perhaps any other state in the Union, is 
nevertheless one of the most rapidly flourisliing in the whole south- 
ern country.^ The true answer is, she has been so fortunately situa- 
ted as to be able to reap the fruits of federal protection. " Midas's 
wand" has touched her, and she has reaped the golden harvest. 
There is no complaint there of the unproductiveness of slave labor. 

*See some interesting statistics concerning this island in Mr. Poinsett's Notes on 
Mexico. 

I In the Virginia debate, it was said that the slow prog-ress of tlie Virginia popula- 
tion was a most unerring symptom of her want of prosperity, and the inefficacy of 
slave labor. Now "we protest against this criterion, unless very cautiously applied. 
Ireland suffers more from want and famine than any other country in Europe, and yet 
her population advances almost as rapidly as ours, and it is this very increase which 
curses the country with the plag-ue of famine. In the Highlands of Scotland, they 
have a very sparse population, scarcely increasing at all ; and yet they are much better 
fed, clothed, &c. than in Ireland. Malihus has proved, that there are two species of 
checks which repress redundant populations — posUive and preventive. It is the latter 
which keeps down the Scotch population; while the former, always accompanied with 
misery, keeps down the Irish. We believe at this time the preventive checks are in full 
operation in Virginia. The people of that state live much better than the same classes 
to the north, and they will not get married unless there is a prospect of maintaining 
their families in the same style they have been accustomed to live in. We believe the 
preventive checks may commence their operation too soon for the wealtli of a state, but 
they always mark a high degree of civilization — so that the slow progress of population 
in Virginia turns out to be her highest eulogy. 



130 

But It is time to bring this long article to a close; it is upon a 
subject which we have most reluctantly discussed ; but, as we have 
already said, the example was set from a higher quarter ; the seal 
has been broken, and we therefore determined to enter fully into the 
discussion. If our positions be true, and it does seem to us they 
maybe sustained by reasoning almost as conclusive as the demon- 
stration of the mathematician, it follows, that the time for emanci- 
pation has not yet arrived, and perhaps it never will. We liope 
sincerely, that the intelligent sons of Virginia will ponder well be- 
fore ihey move — before they enter into a sclfeme which will destroy 
more than half Virginia's wealth, and drag her down from her 
proud and elevated station among the mean things of the earth, — 
and when, Sampson like, she shall by this ruinous scheme, be shorn 
of all her power, and all her glory, the passing stranger may at 
some future day exclaim, 

"The Niobe of Nations ; there she stands 

" Friendless and helpless in her voiceless woe." 

Once more then, do we call upon our statesmen to pause, 'ere 
they engage in this ruinous scheme. The power of man has limits, 
and he should never atfempt impossibilities. We do believe, it is 
beyond the power of man to separate the elements of our popula- 
tion, even, if it were desirable. The deep and solid foundations of 
society, cannot be broken up by the vain Jiat of the legislator. 
We must recollect, that the laws of Lycurgus were promulgated, 
the sublime eloquence of Demosthenes and Cicero was heard, and 
the glorious achievements of Epaminondas and Scipio were witness- 
ed in countries, where slavery existed — without for one moment loos- 
ening the tie between master and slave. We must recollect, too, 
that Poland has been desolated ; that Kosciusko, Sobieski, Scrynecki, 
have fought and bled for the cause of liberty in that country — that 
one of her monarchs annulled, in words, the tie between master and 
slave; and yet, the order of nature, has in the end vindicated itself; 
and the dependence between master and slave, has scarcely for a 
moment ceased. We must recollect, in fine, that our own country 
has waded through two dangerous wars — that the thrilling elo- 
quence of the Demosthenes of our land has been heard with rapture, 
exhorting to deatli, rather than slavery — that the most liberal prin- 
ciples, have ever been promulged and sustained, in onr delibera- 
tive bodies, and before our judicial tribunals — and the whole has 
passed by, without breaking or tearing asunder the elements of our 
social fabric. Let us reflect on these things, and learn wisdom from 
experience ; and know, that the relations of society, generated by 
the lapse of ages, cannot be altered in a day. 



APPENDIX. 



The following extracts from a letter received from a gentleman, 
in answer to some queries which we lately propounded to him in 
conversation, have reached us too late to take advantage of them 
in the body of the Review. As, however, they corroborate some 
of the most impprtant views taken in the Review, and proceed 
from the pen of a gentleman of great intelligence and patriotism, 
and one who perhaps understands the various sectional interests 
of our state better than any other individual, we cannot refrain 
from the publication of them in an Appendix ; and hope the 
author, to whom we have been so frequently indebted for statistical 
information, will pardon the liberty which we take. 

"In relation to our conversation concerning the culture of the 
upper country, I can only speak of the south-west, as I am best 
acquainted with that part — yet, 1 believe it applies to every por- 
tion of it, from Augusta to Tennessee — certainly in the region of 
the Alleghany. 

"Land, in those counties on the Alleghany mountains, and be- 
yond it, are low in price, resulting from the fact, that few of the 
products of the soil will sell in the market, for a much higher 
price than will pay for (lieir transportation, which is high, owing 
to tlie distance, tlie wagon alone being used, and on very bad 
roads, which in the winter and towards spring are nearly impassible. 

"From these circumstances, you will perceive the impossibility 
of the inhabitants of that district sending to market any thing 
but beef, mutton or pork, which has caused all who have suitable 
lands, to turn them into grass farms to obtain any revenue. 

" This mode of culture requires a large capital in land, and 
extensive pastures to obtain a comfortable income, and can only 
be increased by extending the farm. 

"The profit per acre, of this mode of farming is small; it may 
I think, with due regard to the seasons, be estimated at two or 
three dollars! The process is simple, and requires no labor of con- 
sequence after the grounds are well laid down in grass. The ox 
is purchased poor, and fed, generally, from September of the pre- 
ceding year until November of the next year, when lie is sold for 
a profit of ten or fifteen dollars, though, if he is of a large size, 
with a form adapted to rapid improvement in taking on fat, he 
may command a higher price. Land in that part of the state will 
be found differing as widely in its ability to produce grass, as 
almost any where else, but it may be considered safe to allow five 
acres to the ox; if the pasture is new, I think there is no doubt, 
this is not more than sufficient. 

" The advantage of grass farming is, that it requires no labor — 
when the stock is purchased and put upon the pasture, two or 



132 

three men can readily attend to several hundred, if sold in No- 
vember, but if reserved for market in January or February then a 
few laborers will be required to raise corn (maize) to feed them 
during the winter niontlis, which is given in aid of good hay. 
None can pursue this business with any hope of success, unless 
he has large possessions in land. 

"Were a conveyance to market practicable of the usual pro- 
ducts of the soil, as wheat, barley, potatoes, rye, fee, the grass 
farm would soon be divided into several farms for the growing of 
wheat, which is much more profitable. 

"The five acres of pasture allowed the ox, if cultivated in wheat, 
would certainly produce fifty bushels, which would be fully suffi- 
cient to manufacture ten barrels of flour, worth at least forty dol- 
lars ! whereas, the beef produced from the same ground, would 
only bring from ten to fifteen, at mpst twenty doHars. 

*' By this last mode of farming, more labor is necessary, arid 
less land. Consequently the farmer who can afibrd to pay the 
transportation to market of wheat or flour, is ready and very 
willing to purchase slaves to produce the crop — the farm being 
confined to a few acres comparatively speaking. 

''In those districts near the James River, a family can live in 
great abundance, and increase their wealth upon an hundred acres 
of ground from the sale of flour, but in the grass region, such a 
family could not by every industry, do very little more than sub- 
sist comfortably ; w herefore, the}' are compelled to sell their farm 
to the next grass farmer and move to the great west — his little farm 
when annexed to the great territory of his neighbor, is lost to the 
country, and cattle thenceforth take the place of people. 

*'It is quite common in that district to hear the owners of such 
farms remark, that ' they wish lo sell, because they cannot by 
hard labor make any thing but a subsistence, since they cannot 
sell any wheat or grain, and their land is not sufficient to fatten 
stock for market — that land in the west is cheap and the soil very 
rich, and if he has to work to subsist his famil}', it would be a 
gain to labor where his land would double his crop from its.supe- 
rior richness of soil.' 

"You ask Rie also, in relation to the honesty of slaves — all I 
know of them is, as I find them in the west. The people as I have 
shown you in that part of the state, have but very few, not that 
they have prejudices against them, but because they have no em- 
ployment tor them — if roads, or rail-roads were constructed so as 
to allow the transportation of flour at a profit, I doubt not there 
would soon be many there. Such as have slaves, find no difficulty 
with them, they soon acquire the habits of the laborers of the 
countr}', and do not often feel in any other station than that of the 
laborer on the farm, with all the comforts which fall to the lot of 
the poor, and which he is capable of enjoying, with as much time 
at his disposal as any industrious white man who has to perform 
the sarnc work. 



133 

" Brought up in this way, they learn to think and take an inte- 
rest in what is going on, and will always give a good reason for 
every operation on the farm — he is generally honest, strictly so in 
every thing of importance — a thief or pilferer, in a neigliboi hood, 
is soon as well known to the white people as to the slaves, arid is 
as much contemned by the latter as the former. 1 have rarely 
ever known or heard of negroes stealing any thing but poultry, or 
some little finery appertaining to dress, of which they are as fond 
as a buck in Broadway. Money the slave seldom touches, as 
there is something precious about that in their eyes — and he who 
would steal a dozen chickens from his master and sell them for a 
dollar at the next village, would often bring a dollar to his master 
if he were to find it where it had been lost. 

"I recollect not one instance, nor have I ever heard of a slave's 
committing murder for money — murders they have sometimes 
perpetrated it is very true, but I think generally in the heat of 
passion, or acting under a sense of deep injury or an accumulated 
load of personal wrongs. If the slave think his master a just and 
good man, satisfied with what is considered a day's work, he is al- 
ways ready to pay the forfeit for any violation of orders ; this dis- 
cipline is hardly ever necessary. I have known men fifty years 
old, who never received a blow in their lives, and through the 
whole of that time was their masters good friend. In speaking of 
their murders, I must not forget to say, that when Mr. Lewis of 
Prince George county was murdered by his slaves, it was thought 
by man}', that the deed was committed for his money, (many with- 
out doubt still think so,) the money was taken from his desk before 
the house was set on fire — Yet, there was in my mind something 
which compelled me to think the horrid act was committed, that, 
by the aid of money they might be able to find their way to the 
north, for it was about that time these incendiary publications were 
industriously circulated amongst us. 

•' I have written you a long letter, which you will easily perceive 
has been hastily sketched, though I feel assured, based upon facts 
and observations which will stand the test of scrutiny, and cannot bv 
any effort be found deficient, or defective." ^ 
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